KEIR TO FIFE KENNELS. 339 



tion, the Fife men to draw twenty- five couple of the 

 running hounds by ballot, and the Forfar fifteen, and 

 divide the puppies/" This arrangement went on for 

 three years, at the end of which time the Forfar gen- 

 tlemen were .795 15s. 5d. in arrear, and as it could 

 not be recovered, 800 had to be borrowed, and the 

 hounds were handed over by a deed of transfer to the 

 gentlemen who had become answerable for it. The 

 "West Lothian men did much better, and being in- 

 clined for five weeks' sport in 1842, they offered 

 ,200 and paid it. 



Having thus acquired a sort of national debt, 

 things began of course to look up. On July 27th, 

 1827, Captain Wemyss and Mr. Whyte Melville 

 were appointed joint managers, and after eleven sea- 

 sons, the whole management was vested in the latter, 

 by whose Gladstonian manipulation of ways and 

 means and Will Crane' sand John Walker's fine science 

 as huntsmen the hounds were carried bravely on un- 

 til the end of the 1847-48 season, when they were 

 sold for 500 to Sir Richard Sutton, and Walker 

 went to succeed Will Grice, or rather Jack Wood- 

 cock (who hunted the hounds for one season), at 

 Wynnstay. Thus the old Fife Hunt ended with a 

 balance of 40 9s. 5d., which was paid over at the 

 beginning of 1850 to Earl Rosslyn on behalf of the 

 New Fife fox-hounds. 



A friend has sent us a slight resumd of the " Merry 

 John" days : es Will Crane died in the middle of the 

 1829-30 season, and John Walker from Lord 



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