AND STIRLINGSHIEE HUNT 



caught him in the open. It is nine miles as the 

 crow flies from Selms to Swanston ; as hounds ran 

 it was fifteen, and they performed the journey in 

 two hours although the line lay for the most part 

 down wind and in a gale.^ 



To touch upon any other runs in Mr Menzies' 

 mastership, after having described what seems to 

 have been the best, is perhaps injudicious. Still, 

 that which took place on the 5th of March 1887 

 is worthy of mention. When the hearty welcome 

 for which Polkemmet was famous had been ex- 

 tended to all who met there that day by Sir 

 William Baillie, hounds were put into the Hare 

 moss, where, although a brace of foxes were on 

 foot, they quickly settled to one, and pressing 

 him across the moss and through the policies to 

 the young wood west of the house, went on as if 

 for Polkemmet moor. Near the Whitburn road, 

 however, the fox was headed, and hounds, swing- 

 ing right-handed, skirted Couch farmhouse and 

 raced over the grass parks through which the 

 How burn flows, as far as the Harthill and West- 

 craigs road. The manner in which they were 

 running, coupled with the fact that a grass country 

 with very few coverts in it lay before them, gave 

 promise of a fine run, and when the road and 

 the Shotts railway had been crossed, the pack 

 went on as before, up the rising ground to Forrest- 

 burn mill, and from that, after a short check, 

 over Bridge hill and past Bentfoot farm to the 



1 'The Scotsman,' 28th January 1887. 



267 



