HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



ran through this season were wanting in the follow- 

 ing one, the 20th of April 1833 must have been 

 long remembered by those who took part in the 

 run which then befell. The fixture was Harburn, 

 the seat of Mr Alexander Young, and after several 

 of the coverts belonging to him had been drawn, 

 hounds were taken to Auchinhard. Near it they 

 found at once, and forcing their fox away, took 

 a fine line of country over grass. On coming to 

 the river Almond, they forded it close to the 

 village of Blackburn, and leaving that on their 

 right, ran on to Sir William Baillie's coverts at 

 the Cappers. Thence they continued to the Bath- 

 gate and Airdrie road, which they crossed a little 

 to the west of Armadale toll-bar, and running 

 three miles farther, still mostly over grass, reached 

 the high ground west of Bridge Castle, where 

 the chase ended in the death of the fox. The 

 distance as the crow flies is stated to have been 

 not less than ten miles, and as hounds ran six- 

 teen, with only one check, while the pace, the 

 whole way, was such that none but good horses 

 in the best of condition could live with them.^ 

 How this performance on the part of his hounds 

 must have delighted Scott can easily be imagined, 

 for in addition to killing their fox at the end of 

 so fine a hunt, were there not up at the finish, 

 fourteen and a half out of the sixteen couples 

 which had left the covert at Auchinhard ! But 



1 Newspaper cutting in scrap-book which belonged to Mr Alexander 

 Young of Harburn, in the possession of the author. 



124 



