COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 243 



1 8th March. — Invited Captain Sandilands to 

 bring over the Lothian Hounds : Jim Stacey was 

 huntsman. Found in Carnock Moor ; ran well for 

 five miles without a check, and killed at Hillside. 



Hunting days, seventy-four ; frost, eighteen days ; 

 blank, one ; killed twenty-two brace ; to ground, 

 eighteen brace. 



Jack Wilson succeeded Stephen Dobson as second 

 whip. He was a capital horseman ; always got a 

 good start, but generally left some hounds behind. 

 This season we left out thirty-one hounds. The 

 previous season, with Stephen Dobson, only left 

 out one. 



Alex. Mackenzie, Delvine, was quartered in Edin- 

 burgh in 78th Highlanders. I invited him out hunt- 

 ing, and gave him a mount on " Chuzzlewit ". 



1 8th December. — A heavy fall of snow; drifts 

 six feet deep. 



27th. — The house at Charleton caught fire. A 



chimney had been altered the previous year and 



a flue got full of soot. At seven in the morning a 



servant came and called me : " Get up, sir ; the house 



is on fire ". I went and put my hand on the wall 



and it was too hot to touch. My mother was in 



the room above, and they called and told her. She 



said, "Take the carpet up and call Mr. Thomson". 



I dressed myself, put a hatchet in my pocket and got 



on to the top of the house ; found the chimney where 



smoke and sparks were coming out. The roof of the 



house was covered with snow. Got Jack Lee with 



a spade and shovelled snow down the chimney, which 



16* 



