HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



that permitted them to do so without the con- 

 tinual interruption of glens, bogs, hills, and 

 pheasant preserves, which, with sown grass and 

 young wheat, were elsewhere, in the rare event 

 of a run, such vexatious and almost insurmount- 

 able draw - backs. It was only twice a year, 

 however — November and the end of March — that 

 the arrangements of the Hunt could allow this 

 comparative Leicestershire to be visited, and then 

 only for a fortnight at a time ; but I think I am 

 not going too far in saying, that in one of these 

 brief periods there was generally more sport than 

 in six weeks' hunting in either of the other 

 counties. The kennel at Winchburgh, which the 

 hounds during these occasions occupied, was, 

 without exception, the very worst and most 

 inconvenient I ever beheld ; but this could neither 

 prevent their being turned out in their usual most 

 superior form, nor detract very materially from the 

 pleasure with which their huntsman always looked 

 forward to ' the fortnight in the west country.' 

 Nor indeed was it to be wondered at that he did 

 so ; for in the words of Colonel Cook, when 

 speaking of the late Lord Vernon's huntsman, 

 Sam Lawley, in the Bosworth country, ' he had 

 nothing to do but ride as fast as he could — it 

 was all racing heads up and sterns down ; ' and 

 the contrast between this and the unsatisfactory 

 toil imposed on him in the neighbourhood of 

 Newbattle, Dalhousie, &c., must no doubt — especi- 

 ally to a man so completely wrapt up in the 



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