HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



arrival at Keith Hall he was engaged by Lord 

 Kintore — he and Will Williamson thus being 

 entered to hounds in the same year.^ 



The commencement of the season of 1809 saw 

 Lord Elphinstone and Mr Ramsay still at the head 

 of affairs, with Granger as huntsman. Hislop, how- 

 ever, had left, Scott had been promoted to fill his 

 place, and Thomas Luck had been engaged as 

 second whipper-in. Although the subscriptions 

 had slightly fallen off, the Hunt was still popular, 

 and consequently prosperous, and its horizon was 

 as yet bright and unclouded ; but trouble was in 

 store, and a storm was gathering, which was des- 

 tined to shake the old Hunt to its foundations. 

 The most interesting part of Mr Ramsay's diary 

 ends on the 4th of March 1809, for the later entries 

 contain little more than the dates of the hunting 

 days, the fixtures, and the number of foxes killed 

 and run to ground. These, however, show that 

 hunting began on the 7th of October (1809), and 

 that up to the 6th of January following there had 

 been thirty-six hunting days in which ten brace 

 of foxes were killed, and fourteen and a half brace 

 run to ground. The notes of Mr Ramsay's weight, 

 already referred to, form a sad record of failing 

 health, seeing that between the 5th of February 

 1806 and the 22nd of January 1810, two days 

 before his death, his weight had steadily dropped 

 from 17 st. to 12 st. 5 lb. In the frequency of 



1 This story is repeated as nearly as possible in the words of 

 William Shore, late huntsman to the Duke of Bucclouch, to whom 

 it was told by Williamson. 



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