HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



service with the pack, was still capable of showing 

 sport. On the 19th of November the hounds met 

 at Calder House, and ran for over an hour and 

 forty minutes. This much is recorded on one of the 

 shoes of Jack Sheppard, which forms an ornament 

 in the library at Sauchie, and which besides giving 

 this information, bears that the horse — he had 

 probably distinguished himself that day — was 

 foaled in 1840 and died in 1851. On the 16th 

 of the following month of January there occurred 

 a run in Linlithgowshire which, taken as a whole, 

 it would be difficult to find an equal to on that 

 side of the country, for hounds found by the 

 Almond and finished by the Avon, after having 

 traversed nearly the entire breath of the county. 

 Calder House was again the place of meeting, 

 but the day being wild and stormy, — it was 

 blowing a hurricane, with rain and sleet from 

 the south-west — Calder wood and all the high- 

 lying coverts in the adjoining district were 

 drawn blank. In the afternoon Hintoul threw 

 his hounds into the then famous gorse covert of 

 Elliston,^ which had already that season afforded 

 two good runs. The wind was still strong, but 

 the weather had improved, and after the pack 

 had been in covert for a short time, first one 

 hound spoke and then another, and in a few 

 minutes every hound was throwing its tongue. 

 The fox had broken to the west, and hounds 

 hunted his line slowly, but with steadiness 



^ Now spelt Illiston. 



160 



