HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



ment was intrusted to Mr William Hay of Duns 

 Castle.' 



"Who comes next? A master of fox-hounds 

 should take the precedence of all others when 

 Nimrod writes, and therefore I introduce to my 

 readers who may not be acquainted with him, a 

 gentleman known in Warwickshire — which county 

 he hunted three seasons in first-rate style — as Mr 

 Hay, but in Scotland as ' Willie Hay ' of Duns 

 Castle ; and if I could but persuade myself to 

 believe — with a little addition to it — in the doctrine 

 of metempsychosis, or exchange of souls, I should 

 boldly assert that ' Mr Hay ' in England, and 

 ' Willie Hay' in Scotland, could not be the same 

 man. But in what consists the fancied trans- 

 figuration ? Why, the character of Mr Hay in 

 Warwickshire — and I appeal to my brother sports- 

 men there, if such it was not — was that of a good 

 sportsman, a well-bred gentleman, an agreeable 

 companion ; and that was all. Perhaps he acted 

 the part of the cautious hound on a ticklish scent- 

 ing day, and on fresh ground, and left it to others 

 to throw their tongues on the hazard ; but this I 

 can say, on my own experience of this highly 

 respected gentleman on both sides of the Tweed, 

 that Willie Hay north of the river, is worth a 

 dozen Mr Hays south of it. That in one he was 

 merely the agreeable companion ; on the other he 

 is the life and soul of every party he is in ; — the 

 best teller of a story, with the best stock of 



1 ' Sporting Magazine,' July 1828. 



96 



