HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



them.^ The point appears to be eight and a 

 half miles, while the distance covered was prob- 

 ably not less than from twelve to fifteen. 



At the end of the season Rintoul left. Some 

 years later he became huntsman to the Stirling- 

 shire harriers, a pack which was established at 

 Laurieston about the year 1857, but was afterwards 

 converted into or superseded by the Laurieston 

 fox -hounds. Later still, in the first season of 

 Colonel Gillon's mastership (1866), he was employed 

 as stud-groom in the Hunt stables ; ^ and when 

 eventually he retired from service he took a house 

 in Linlithgow, which he occupied up to the time 

 of his death. In his prime he showed very con- 

 siderable talent as a huntsman, and the late Colonel 

 Anstruther Thomson, in speaking of him in that 

 capacity, is reported to have said that there were 

 then very few in England and none in Scotland 

 like him ; an encomium which Mr Forbes of Callen- 

 dar, who early in life hunted with him, thoroughly 

 endorses. For Mr Ramsay, under whom he had 

 served first as whipper-in and afterwards as hunts- 

 man, Rintoul, to the last, had the greatest admir- 

 ation and regard ; and after death had separated 

 master and servant, the latter was ever ready 

 to rebuke any one who, in his hearing, might 

 have ventured to say a word disrespectful to Mr 



1 'Edinburgh Evening Courant,' 23rd January 1851. 



2 List of Invitations to Gamekeepers' and Earths- stoppers' Dinner, 

 17th October 1866, among Hunt papers in the custody of Messrs Glen 

 & Henderson, Linlithgow. 



162 



