AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



case. For in the years which followed, the sub- 

 scription considerably exceeded in amount the 

 sums annually expended in making and fencing 

 coverts, paying surface and poultry damages, &c., 

 with the result that a reserve fund was formed 

 which, when the proper time arrived, was devoted 

 pro tanto to the purchase of the pack.^ 



The first good day which fell to Charles Atkin- 

 son's lot after the end of the cub -hunting season 

 was the 31st of December,^ and it must have been 

 a matter of satisfaction to him that he was able 

 to show sport on that date, since it chanced that 

 his former master, Mr Forbes, was present. Three 

 days later a large field, including the master and 

 Miss Russel, Lady Estella and Lady Dorothea 

 Hope, Miss Mackenzie, Sir Arthur Halkett, Mr 

 Blackwood, Mr Drybrough, Colonel M'Barnet, Mr 

 Usher, and Captain Wilkie, met hounds at Cler- 

 miston, and had the good fortune to take part 

 in a fast run from Dalmeny to Hopetoun, over 

 a line now nearly impossible. Finding in the 

 laurels close to Dalmeny House, hounds soon 

 reached the west lodge-gates, but, turning right- 

 handed, ran down to and along the sea -shore 

 almost to the quay at Queensferry. From that 

 they swung south, and crossing the Edinburgh 

 road close to the Halls or Hawes inn, went on 

 over the farm of Wester Dalmeny to Craigbrae, 

 and thence, at a great pace, by Dundas and Swine- 



^ Minute-book, vol. ii. p. Gl. 



2 ' Edinburgh Courant,' 2nd January 1882. 



257 R 



