AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



anecdotes, and with as much of the orighial char- 

 acter of his country about him, as any man I am 

 acquainted with. That he is a horseman of the 

 first order, I need not trouble myself to assert." ^ 



Mr Hay, whose portrait has been thus drawn 

 by Nimrod, was the eldest son of Mr Robert Hay 

 of Duns Castle in Berwickshire, and of Drumelzier 

 in Peeblesshire, his family being a branch of the 

 Hays, Marquesses of Tweeddale. He was born on 

 the 29th of February 1788, succeeded his father on 

 the 21st of August 1807, and was elected a member 

 of the Caledonian Hunt on the 13th of January 

 1829. Besides having previously hunted a part of 

 Berwickshire,^ he had been master of the Holder- 

 ness Hounds for one season (1821),^ and of the 

 Warwickshire for two (1825 and 1826).^ He had, 

 therefore, had considerable experience as a master 

 of hounds, and was at this time well known as 

 a good sportsman both in England and Scotland. 

 While master of the Warwickshire, he appears to 

 have acquired through his kennel-huntsman, Jack 

 Wood, previously with the Pytchley during the 

 mastership of Lord Althorp, some Pytchley blood. 

 This, it would seem, he eventually brought with 

 him from Warwickshire to Scotland ; ^ and it is 

 possible that the introduction of it into the Lin- 



1 Ninirod's 'Northern Tour,' 1838, p. 46. 



^ There are preserved at Duns Castle some old hunt buttons used by 

 Mr Hay, on which are embossed the letters D.C.H., i.e., presumably, 

 Dims Castle Hunt. 



•^ ' Sporting Magazine,' April 1821 and February 1822. 



^ Ibid., November 1825 and January 1827. ° Ibid., August 1839. 



97 G 



