AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



too, must have been as good as ever it had been, 

 for Rintoul received from various hunting friends 

 quite a succession of little gifts, presented, for the 

 most part, as mementos of particularly good runs, 

 or of days upon which he and his hounds had 

 distinguished themselves. From Captain Peter 

 Hay of Mugdrum there came a silver snuff-box 

 (1843), and a silver cigar-case (1844); from Sir 

 Alexander Maitland, a silver -mounted hunting- 

 crop (1844) ; from Lord Valentia, a silver cup 

 (1845); from Mr Ramsay, a silver hunting-horn 

 (1846); and from the members of the Hunt, "as 

 a mark of the sense they have long entertained 

 of his merits as a huntsman," a silver tea-service 

 (1846).^ The most noteworthy of the runs re- 

 corded about this time are two which took place 

 in the Carnwath country. The first of these 

 occurred on the 17th of April 1843, when, meeting 

 at Huntfield, about two miles to the north-west of 

 Biggar, hounds immediately found a fox which, 

 though twice headed, persevered in making his 

 point. Away went the pack, racing ahead in a 

 north-easterly direction as if for the distant covert 

 of Penicuik, until at the end of an almost absolutely 

 straight fourteen miles, accomplished in one hour 

 and twenty minutes, with only one very trifling 

 check, the fox could no longer stand up before 

 them, and the pack, " led by the gallant 

 Brusher," ^ running from scent to view, killed him 



1 These articles are in the possession of Mrs Morton, Joppa. 

 ^ Brusher seems to have been a descendant of Bedford (183J). 



147 



