AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



the end of the season the receipts were, as a rule, 

 insufiBclent to meet the expenditure. Thus a mill- 

 stone, in the shape of a yearly increasing defi- 

 ciency, began to hang heavily round the neck 

 of the committee, and although more than one 

 appeal for additional subscriptions was made, 

 there was no satisfactory response. Therefore 

 money had to be borrowed, and it would seem 

 that in the long-run the debt was of necessity 

 wiped out by those who should not have had to 

 bear the burden. Under such circumstances, it 

 is little to be wondered at that payments to ac- 

 count of the sum guaranteed to the master could 

 not always be made when these were most re- 

 quired, and frequently Mr Hope had to lie out 

 of his money for a considerable time. On one 

 occasion when he happened to meet the honorary 

 secretary and treasurer, he took the opportunity 

 of asking for an instalment, but all that he got 

 at the time was a good - natured slap on the 

 shoulder, and " Damn it, man, Jimmie, we haven't 

 collected it." 



In the course of his mastership, Mr Hope, as 

 was only natural, had through his hands a large 

 number of horses. These, when sold, generally 

 realised good prices, and Mr Hope says that one 

 spring " the Hunt twenty " fetched an average 

 price of 135 guineas, the highest among the various 

 hunt sales of the year with the exception of the 

 Cheshire. Snowdrop, Mullingar, Kilkenny, His 

 Grace, Sir John, John Peel, and Moscow stand 



243 



