HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



used to dine. Here it was, the story goes, that 

 the kennelman or feeder returning home from 

 Midcalder one night the worse of liquor, and 

 entering one of the lodging rooms of the pack, 

 was set upon and totally devoured, nothing but 

 his boots and one or two fragments of his clothes 

 being found on the following morning. But the 

 kennelman's life was not the only sacrifice on this 

 occasion, for the Hunt lost a considerable number 

 of hounds, all those which were concerned in this un- 

 fortunate affair having been immediately destroyed. ••• 



Among Sir William Cunynghame's friends or 

 companions ^ were Colonel Gillon of Wallhouse, 

 grandfather of the late Colonel Gillon, who was a 

 member of the Hunt until the year 1821, and Mr 

 Shairp of Houstoun, whose family has already been 

 mentioned as contributing much support towards 

 the hunting of the country ; while the diary ^ of 

 Mr William Ramsay of Barnton shows that his 

 son, Mr George Ramsay, upon whom the mastership 

 devolved at a later period, knew Sir William, and 

 visited him at Livingstone. In this journal Mr 

 Ramsay makes frequent mention of his son's being 

 " a-hunting," and under date the 13th of March 

 1790, alludes to the hounds being at Barnton. 



" 1790, March 13th.— Fox-hunting in the neigh- 

 bourhood. A great number of gentlemen come here 



^ Mr Robert Martin (aged 77), gamekeeper to Mr Shairp of Houstoun, 

 states that he has heard this tale from many persons Hving in the 

 district. 



2 'Political State of Scotland in 1788,' by Sir Charles Elphinstone 

 Adam of Blairadam : 1887, pp. 230, 231. 



2 Diary in the possession of Mr Keith Ramsay Maitland, Edinburgh. 



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