AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



by Lord Kintore on the division of the united Fife 

 and Forfarshire packs in or about the year 1823, 

 while the remainder was composed chiefly of drafts 

 procured from different well-known kennels in 

 England.^ The huntsman engaged was George 

 Knight, who at this time was about thirty-seven 

 years of age, and was living at Dalkeith. He 

 either then was, or had been, whipper-in to the 

 Lothian Hounds^ under Williamson, and therefore 

 must have been acquainted to some extent with 

 the country which he was about to hunt. He 

 seems to have come originally from Gloucestershire 

 or Monmouthshire, and to have been in the service, 

 first, of Captain Davidson of Cantray, with whom 

 he came to Scotland, then of Mr Forbes of Culloden, 

 and, finally, before commencing his hunting career, 

 of the Duke of Gordon, to whom he acted as pad- 

 groom or second horseman. Shortly after his en- 

 gagement he travelled to Inglismaldie in Kincar- 

 dineshire, and early in February brought down the 

 pack to the kennels at Winchburgh which had 

 previously been occupied by the Lothian Hounds 



1 " It must be well known to most masters of fox-hounds, that the 

 Earl of Kintore (from whom the hounds were bought by the present 

 manager, Mr Johnston) procured the best drafts England could produce 

 as well as old hounds from different quarters, besides taking ten or 

 twelve couples of the best hunting hounds (as he had a right to do) 

 from the Fife or Forfar pack. His Lordship commenced hunting in 

 the autumn of 1824," . . . "and the pack having had their fair share 

 of sport, and being well blooded early in the season, about Christmas, 

 came to their present country." — Vide ' Sporting Magazine,' March 

 1828, and 'Xotitia Yenatica,' by R. T. Vyner, 1842, the appendix to 

 which includes Lord Kintore's List for 1824. 



'■^ 'Sporting Magazine," July 1825. 



91 



