220 REMINISCENCES OF 



and Elie, and paid the following rents : Kinnear, 

 ;^35 ; Wood, ;^30 ; Fortune, ^40 ; Luke, ^so- 

 total, £^3S- I employed five men besides Corbett, 

 my gamekeeper, who had charge. 



I took Sir James Burnett's house, 13 Moray 

 Place, and went there about the end of October. 



In October, 1857, while I was staying in Edin- 

 burgh, the keeper at Killala got a vixen fox in a trap. 

 It lost one of its fore-feet. I took it to Edinburgh 

 and kept it in the area for some days, then took it to 

 Charleton, and put it into an empty stable. It got 

 out the first night. 



In spring there was a vixen fox on the hill with a 

 white breast and white pads ; she had five cubs. 

 About the beginning of May the lame vixen came, 

 followed by four cubs. They all lived together and 

 appeared to suckle indiscriminately. We could see 

 them with a telescope from the back windows of the 

 house. The lame vixen always went out to forage 

 and the other one sat on the top of the rock on 

 sentry. The white vixen unfortunately got into a 

 trap in Balcarres Den. Some carters found her on 

 the side of the road, and in catching her with a cart- 

 rope, strangled her. The lame one was no more seen. 



One day in the west of Fife, Andrew Gullane 

 asked Lord Rosslyn to draw a patch of gorse on the 

 side of a hill. Rosslyn said, " It is no use, we might 

 find a mouse ". The hounds were put in, and out 

 bounced a great big fox. Gullane galloped away 

 after the hounds shouting out, " A muckle big moose, 

 my lord, a muckle big moose ! " 



