HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



good man to hounds and hunted regularly in 

 spite of advancing years. In Paddy, a horse 

 which as a four-year-old had fetched 400 guineas, 

 but which owing to a slight blemish had become 

 his property for a comparatively small sum, he 

 had as good a hunter as any man could wish for, 

 and it is probable that some of the happiest 

 hours of his life were passed on the back of this 

 four-footed friend. But no day could ever have 

 been more completely his than the 10th of March 

 1893, on which, when sixty-three years of age, 

 he won the Hunt point-to-point race for the third 

 time in succession, riding the same good animal 

 in a field of twenty-one.^ So thoroughly did his 

 friends appreciate him as a horseman and good 

 sportsman, and so much were they gratified by 

 his success, that they presented him with a 

 memento of his performance in the shape of a 

 silver bowl which, it must have pleased him to 

 know, had been subscribed for chiefly by those 

 who had ridden against him." 



Through the generous conduct of two of the 

 members of his field, Mr Cross was guaranteed 

 a subscription of £1600 in the second last, and 

 again in the last, season of his mastership. The 

 matter was arranged informally, and it is there- 

 fore alluded to here only with the view of giving 

 to the guarantors, Mr Usher and Mr William 

 Younger, the credit they deserved ; for had it 



1 Minute-book, vol. ii. pp. 99 and 100. '^ Ibid., p. 103. 



292 



