HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



the line of this run, it would seem that the dis- 

 tance covered might quite easily have been fifteen 

 or sixteen miles. 



Shortly after the close of the season of 1838, 

 Scott retired. He had talked of doing so for some 

 little time previously, for his weight had been in- 

 creasing, and he was no longer able to ride up to 

 his hounds as he had done. This much may be 

 gathered from the West-Lothian song alone, for 

 while it was he who, "with his heart in his eye" 

 put hounds into covert and cheered them when 

 drawing, it was Rintoul who at the end of the run 

 held the fox " aloft in air." The time had come, 

 according to his own statement, when Rintoul, 

 whom he knew was well worthy of the huntsman's 

 place, should have it all to himself^ Some three 

 years before, he had been entertained to dinner 

 at Falkirk, by a number of those then hunting 

 with the pack, and presented with a piece of plate 

 in testimony of their respect for him as a man and 

 their admiration of his talents as a huntsman.^ 

 After his retirement he took a small farm called 

 The Camphort on the Monreith estate in Wigtown- 

 shire ; but as a farmer he does not appear to 

 have been more successful than his predecessor 

 in office, George Knight, and he finally moved 

 into the Burnside cottage at Monreith, where 

 he died of paralysis on the 5 th of February 



^ 'Sporting Magazine,' August 1839. 

 2 Ibid., September 1836. 



140 



