AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



underwent their preparation at GuUane or Middle- 

 ham, they were usually wintered at Barnton. 

 When they visited any of the classic race-grounds, 

 they performed the journey in a sort of stall on 

 wheels, drawn by cart - horses. The first vehicle 

 of this kind was made by a firm in London, who 

 patented it as an invention, and on Mr Ramsay 

 getting the estate carpenter at Barnton, James 

 Bell, to construct for him a carriage on similar 

 lines, the builders of the original brought an 

 action against Bell for infringement of the 

 patent, and many of the estate people employed 

 in its construction gave evidence on his behalf. 

 The case does not seem to be reported, but it is 

 said that the raisers of this action were unsuc- 

 cessful — the home - made conveyance being held 

 to be of a different mould from the original, and 

 wanting in the essentials necessary to constitute 

 infringement. 



Mr Ramsay was a fine judge of a horse, and his 

 stud of hunters was the envy of many equally 

 rich sportsmen who, somehow or other, never 

 seemed to get the right sort.^ The Squire, a 

 chestnut — the horse which he is depicted as riding 

 in Chalon's picture ^ — Repeater a dapple grey, 

 Binks the Bagman a chestnut. Rocket a black 

 or brown, Round Robin a bay stallion, Lambton 

 and Jack Sheppard, are handed down as having 

 been famous hunters in their day ; and old In- 



1 'Baily's Magazine,' March 1896. 



2 Vide illustration, p. 134. 



117 



