HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



though gratifying to both masters, must have been 

 particularly so to Mr Gillon, since it was in the 

 neighbourhood of Wallhouse, and therefore in the 

 district in which he had passed many of his early 

 days, that the event took place. Apart from the 

 regular members of the field, there were to be found 

 among those who met hounds on such occasions 

 many of the Hunt's best friends and well-wishers. 

 Of these perhaps none is better known or more 

 respected in the district than Mr John Thomson, 

 who occupies, as his father and grandfather did 

 before him, the position of overseer at Wallhouse. 

 In his snug home above the village he always 

 had a second breakfast for the master and a few 

 other friends and brother-sportsmen ; for although 

 he no longer hunts, there were, at one period of 

 his life, few days on which he was not out with 

 hounds when they met on his side of the country. 

 Mounted on his grey mare, he was then a very 

 familiar figure in the field, and no man, it is said, 

 could recount more graphically than he what 

 hounds had done, or what is more, how they 

 had done it. Without a doubt there would also 

 be present Mr Woodcock, the landlord of the 

 " Star and Garter," Linlithgow, and with him most 

 likely Mr George Simpson, Falkirk, Mr Wood- 

 cock, whose father had been whipper-in to the 

 Pytchley under Charles Payne during the master- 

 ship of the sixth Lord Hopetoun, became second- 

 horseman to his lordship as far back as the year 

 1860, and while for fifteen seasons he saw a fair 



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