AND STlRLINGSHmE HUNT 



a character, as the following anecdotes will show. 

 Being some distance behind his hounds one day 

 when they were running very hard, Mr Maxwell 

 — the son of his first master, Sir William — passed 

 him, with the hope of being able to catch them. 

 ' It won't do, sir,' holloas Scott to him ; ' 'tis no use 

 your haggrivating your horse in that manner ; if 

 you ivas on a heagle you ivould not catch 'em.' On 

 another occasion he missed some hounds after a 

 long run in a wild country, and they were event- 

 ually lost. On some one condoling with him upon 

 what most huntsmen would consider rather a 

 serious bereavement, Scott replied with a smile, 

 ' Oh, it's nought worth thinking about ; it is a 

 poor concarn that cant afford to lose a hound 

 or two.'"^ 



Nor does Nimrod forget to bestow a word of 

 praise on Kintoul. " The activity and science dis- 

 played by the first whipper-in delighted me ; he 

 was a perfect Mungo, here, there, and everywhere, 

 telegraphing with his hand and whip when he 

 could not be heard, and giving the office with his 

 voice when he could"; while he proceeds to relate 

 that Mr Ramsay rode a very clever hunter — a 

 chestnut, with a blaze of white down his face, — 

 that Lord Hopetoun was also splendidly mounted 

 and rode well to the hounds, that Captain Peter 

 Hay of Mugdrum House, in Fife, went " as usual " 

 on his celebrated old horse Coroner, and that " that 

 noted old sportsman, Major Shairp of Houstoun," 



1 'Northern Tour,' 1838, pp. 223 and 224. 



133 



