HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



establishment was broken up in 1814, Mr Baird 

 asked Granger to become his huntsman in place of 

 Collison, who had resigned ; but Granger declined, 

 and it would seem that his term of hunt service 

 with the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire pack was his 

 only one. Retiring into private life, he died in the 

 year 1846, at the age of eighty-one, and was buried 

 at North Newbald, near Beverley, in Yorkshire. In 

 declining Mr Baird's offer, Granger suggested the 

 promotion of Williamson who had been whipper-in 

 under Collison. This suggestion Mr Baird acted 

 upon in the year 1816, and if Williamson did not 

 actually begin his first season as huntsman, in Lin- 

 lithgowshire, it must have been very shortly after 

 its commencement that he brought his hounds to 

 the kennels at Winchburgh,^ for it is recorded that 

 the first fox he ever killed was one from a fixture 

 at Armadale toll-bar, a little to the west of Bath- 

 gate, hounds pulling him down after seven or eight 

 miles before he could reach Callendar woods, near 

 Falkirk.2 



'' Few packs, probably, had a greater range of 

 country than the Lothian — under the manage- 

 ment of the late worthy and lamented Mr Baird 

 — enjoyed at this period, — its strict limits extend- 

 ing from the Duke's coverts^ west of LinlithgoM', 

 to Penmaushiel wood, beyond Cockburnspath, on 



^ The Winchburgh kennels appear to have stood close to the inn 

 there, the building which forms the eastern side of the small square 

 in front of it having been the stable. 



2 'Field and Fern ' (South), 1865, p. 217. 



3 The Duke of Hamilton's coverts, — Avon Banks, Kinneil, &c. 



70 



