AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



before dinner with George, take a little cold beef, 

 etc., and return to the sport." 



Seven years afterwards the hounds were estab- 

 lished in kennels at Linlithgow. This change 

 of kennel, coupled with a reference ^ to the exist- 

 ence a little later of a committee of management, 

 is almost conclusive evidence that the control had 

 now (1797) passed into other hands; and as Sir 

 William Cunynghame's name does not appear in 

 any of the subsequent records of the Hunt, not- 

 withstanding his survival for a period of over 

 thirty years, this will be a convenient opportun- 

 ity to take leave of him and his time, in regard 

 to which such scanty information exists. In the 

 absence of evidence to the contrary, it may be 

 assumed that his reign — which, if it began about 

 the year 1775, as seems probable, had lasted over 

 twenty years — had been productive of sport, and 

 that he had been a good master. That he was 

 at least both hospitable and popular may be 

 gathered from the fact that the descendant of one 

 of his servants, Thomas Bishop, late grieve to 

 Mr Stoddart of Howden, remembers having heard 

 from his father that in his. Sir William's, time 

 there were often as many as from twenty to thirty 

 carriages at Livingstone House on a Sunday after- 

 noon. Sir William died at his house in London 

 on the 17th of January 1828.^ A newspaper of the 

 day bears that few men were more distinguished 

 than he was " for elegance of manners, high 



1 'Edinburgh Advertiser' of 25th March 1803. 



2 Burke's ' Peerage and Baronetage' ; Foster's ' Members of Parliament.' 



31 



