AND STIRLINGSHIEE HUNT 



they would dine together for the purpose of writing 

 an account of it, in order that this might appear 

 in print on the following morning ; and Mr Thomas 

 Home, Mr T. E. O. Home's son, tells how the 

 composition of these accounts used to amuse him, 

 for on such occasions both sportsmen were gener- 

 ally tired and sleepy. Mr Blackwood usually took 

 the pen, but seemed to have considerable difficulty 

 in beginning, for after looking thoughtfully at the 

 paper before him for some time, he would ask, 

 " How shall I start ? " "Well, wouldn't you mention 

 where hounds met ? " " All right, I've got that ; 

 what shall I put next?" "Oh, then, I think I'd 

 say where they found " — and so on to the end ; 

 a result satisfactory to both being arrived at only 

 after a long sederunt. 



During the spring of the year 1872, Mr Barstow 

 contributed to ' The Edinburgh Courant ' a series of 

 Letters, afterwards reprinted in book form.^ These, 

 as the preface to the reprint bears, were written 

 merely with a view to amusing the author and his 

 younger compeers, but they are none the less in- 

 teresting as records of sport ; while the following 

 passage, which occurs in the last of the series, 

 reveals divertingly the writer's sense of satisfaction 

 with his own performances in the field : — 



" It was now put to me by the master why, 

 celebrating the deeds of others, I have hidden 

 myself so entirely. My answer was, ' Of tlieiv 

 own merits modest men are dumb.' But this 



1 ' Days with the Lothians Hounds,' by an " Old Sportsman," 1872. 



231 



