HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



date a good hill run resulted from a fixture at 

 Garvald in East Lothian — hounds pulling down 

 their fox in the open near Crichness at the end 

 of a fast fifty -five minutes without a check. ^ It 

 was on a Saturday about this time that the pack, 

 carrying a fair head, brought a fox from the Three- 

 mile-town coverts by Humbie to Dundas, where 

 they threw up on the gravel in front of the castle, 

 and although Mr Russel held them all round, 

 they were unable to hit off the line. On the 

 following Monday morning, however, the house- 

 maid who went to open the windows of a bedroom 

 on the ground floor, not only discovered the fox, 

 but found everything in a terrible state of dis- 

 order. Curtains had been torn down, furniture 

 overturned, and ornaments broken ; and it appeared 

 that the fox, after failing in an attempt to escape 

 by the chimney, had made use of the bed and all 

 the most comfortable chairs. On being liberated 

 he crossed the lawn, apparently none the worse of 

 his Saturday to Monday visit in the bedroom at 

 Dundas, which ever afterwards went by the name 

 of " the fox room." 



But although Mr Russel was able to hunt hounds 

 himself occasionally, he was far from w^ell, and so 

 unfit for his duties did he feel in the end of the 

 year (1882) that he considered it best to send in 

 his resignation.^ Sir Arthur Halkett and Captain 

 "Jack" Middleton were in turn asked to fill the 



1 ' Edinburgh Courant,' 23rd January 1883. 



2 Minute-book, vol. i. p. 221. 



260 



