APPENDIX III. 



paid for them by Mr Hay, nor was any money paid to Mr Hay 

 by Mr Rajusay; and according lo .ae laws of fox-hunting, I 

 believe, whoever receives in this way a subscription pack, is 

 bound to give up as good and efficient a pack when his reign 

 as master terminates, as he received when made over to him. In 

 proof of this being in accordance with the laws of fox-hunting, 

 I can refer to the case of the Warwickshire pack last year, which 

 Lord Willoughby spent £3000 annually upon, getting a very 

 small subscription from a large and wealthy country. He handed 

 them over, after seventeen years, to the gentlemen of the country, 

 saying, as he did so, " They are not my hounds, gentlemen, but 

 yours." The master of a subscription pack should be chosen by 

 the county, who are the best judges of his eligibility for that 

 office. 



Stirlingshire should not be given up by these hounds, as I 

 consider the master is in duty bound to hunt the entire country 

 to which the pack belongs, and has no more right to give up 

 a district without the consent of the proprietors than assume a 

 territory not his own. 



If it be the desire of Mrs Eamsay, and a very natural one too, 

 that her son should take these hounds, as his much-lamented 

 father did before him, were this desire made known amongst the 

 proprietors of coverts, tenantry, and subscribers, I feel sure that 

 every one would come forward and render every assistance to keep 

 up the credit and efficiency of the pack, till such time as the 

 Young Squire could take the management. 



On the other hand, should the pack be found to be private 

 property, they might at any time be sold or removed to some 

 other district, and we might be deprived of the pack alto- 

 gether, and the interests of fox-hunting in this country seriously 

 injured. 



But, whichever way this question may be settleei, it will be 

 materially for the advantage of those hunting the country, that 

 all doubt as to the proprietorship of these hounds be removed; 

 and whether they remain the old L. S. Hounds, or whether they 

 belong to the Barnton family; in either case I promise my 

 humble support ; only, with my views and feelings concurred in, 

 as I tell you these are, by almost every one in the two counties 

 to whom I have spoken on the matter, you cannot but acknow- 

 ledge that it is only fair the question should now be definitely 

 settled. 



If Mrs Eamsay is agreeable that it should be so, we can have 



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