HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



tinuance of the stormy weather depress Atkinson, 

 whose spirits were wont to rise under difficulties, 

 and whose countenance, when throwing his hounds 

 into "the Wilderness" near Bellsquarry on this 

 occasion, beamed as with a consciousness of the 

 thorough manner in which they were to acquit 

 themselves throughout the impending fine run. 

 The cry with which the covert resounded only 

 died away as the pack broke from it and settled 

 to the line of their fox, which — big, wiry, and 

 grey — had gone eastwards by the village. The 

 few intervening fields were quickly left behind, 

 and from the wood at Bellsquarry hounds ran 

 south across the Caledonian railway and through 

 the Murieston strips ; then bending by Hermand 

 and again by the Limefield glen, they ran on to 

 Westwood, where they crossed the flooded Breich 

 water near the railway bridge. From this point 

 they stretched away by Foulshiels across the 

 Morningside and Coltness railway, and so to Pol- 

 kemmet, where the fox, which had gone to ground 

 in a rabbit burrow, was dug out and given to 

 them, and in the absence of Sir William Baillie, 

 his brother, who had taken part in the run, re- 

 freshed the sportsmen present. The distance from 

 Bellsquarry wood to Polkemmet — nine miles as the 

 crow flies, and perhaps half as much again as hounds 

 ran — was accomplished in an hour and forty minutes, 

 during which hounds were neither lifted nor cast, 

 nor was there the semblance of a check. ^ 



1 ' Edinburgh Courant,' 7th February 1876. 

 240 



