STONEHAVEN TO CORTACHY. 223 



is so wet and cold that there is not much good lying. 

 In frosty weather " it was beautiful running when 

 other packs were idle." Tom Rintoul (who was wont 

 to boast that the majority of huntsmen " wouldn't 

 get a pack out cf it in eight days") killed 6| brace 

 of foxes from it in one season, as it is quite a city 

 of refuge for them. It is also full of roe deer; 

 but Tom's hounds had been well broken to " War ! 

 Hench /" before they came there, and therefore they 

 took no notice of " the finest scent in the world." 

 Legaston is a capital 200-acre gorse, and so thick 

 that, to quote Tom again, " my hounds used to come 

 out with their sterns as bare as a whip-thong, and so 

 bloody that I hardly knew them." Catterthune above 

 Erechin was another fine cover ; and so was Marcus, 

 five miles to the west, with a splendid Leicestershire 

 country, and a burning scent over heather right away 

 to the Grampians. Colonel Maule, who died in the 

 Crimea, was the last regular master; and when 

 Major Douglas was appointed field-master, he 

 bought 25 couple of the Hursley for 300, and, with 

 Ben Boothroyd and Markwell as his huntsmen, car- 

 ried on the game for four seasons more. A better 

 sportsman neverspoke to hound; butall his fine riding 

 did not prevent him from leaving one or two of his 

 best horses dead upon the hills above Cortachy, and 

 trudging back with the saddle and bridle on his arm, 

 when a straight-necked, dark-coloured "traveller" 

 had "gone home in a hurry" from Marcus. Mr. Hay, 

 of Letham Grange, is another grand, old county 



