AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



death of Mr Fred Usher on the 27th October, on 

 the eve, so to speak, of regular hunting, spread a 

 gloom throughout the country. For his was one 

 of those gentle and kindly natures which have 

 no enemies but numerous friends who, grieving 

 his loss, found the days which followed fraught 

 with many sad memories. Frost, which had inter- 

 fered with the work of the pack on the last day 

 of cub-hunting, afterwards came and went only to 

 come again, and since hunting was stopped on 

 twenty-two occasions, runs were few and far be- 

 tween. Probably the best days were the 13th ol 

 November, when there were two good hunts in 

 the Kinneil district, each exceeding an hour ; ^ 

 the 8th of February, when hounds ran well for 

 some sixty minutes over a snow -clad country 

 between Beecraigs and Binnybridge ; ^ and the 

 1st of March when, late in the afternoon, a fox 

 found at Craigbinning was pursued at a fair pace 

 by The Law and Hangingside to Champfleurie, and 

 thence by Ochiltree Castle and the Braes o' Mar 

 to Ecclesmachan covert, where he was killed.^ 



The meet at Torphichen on the last day of the 

 season — a new and most popular appointment, for 

 which Mr Gillon deserves credit — was always 

 largely attended, and each year the crowd which 

 assembled in the square of that picturesque little 

 village seemed to become greater. The enthusi- 

 asm which the keeping of the fixture created, al- 



1 'The Scotsman,' 15th November 1909. 



2 Ibid., 9th February 1910. 3 ibid., 2nd March 1910. 



329 



