APPENDIX III. 



my meets for those from whom I receive both. I have not given 

 up Stirlingshire ; but it is unreasonable to expect that, without 

 subscriptions, I am to be tied down to hunt the country in any 

 particular way. 



Believe me. 



Truly yours, 



(Sgd.) J. SANDILANDS. 



Mr GiLLON to Mr Sandilands. 



Wallhouse, Is^ May 1857. 

 MY DEAR SANDILANDS, 



I duly received your letter of the 24th, sending me 

 Mrs Ramsay's answer to my letter to you of 1st April ; and I can 

 only say that it has not altered my opinion as to the proprietor- 

 ship of the L. S. Hounds; and I shall leave others to judge 

 whether my letter has been received by Mrs Ramsay in the same 

 spirit in which it was written. I am sorry that Mrs Ramsay 

 should rest her claim so strongly on the consideration shown her 

 by the county gentlemen and subscribers, at a time when sym- 

 pathising with her, as they did so sincerely, in the great loss 

 which had befallen her, and it would have been strange indeed 

 had they then indicated any opposition to her wishes. I did not 

 see the letter referred to, but clearly understood that Mrs Ramsay 

 was to carry on the hounds, and have the entire management, as 

 Mr Ramsay had had for so many years. There are explanations, 

 too, as to the hounds being taken to hunt Forfarshire for a time, 

 which makes that of much less importance than Mrs Ramsay 

 seems to attach to it. 



Circumstances also occurred at a meeting held in 1852, Mr 

 Fleeming in the chair, to which Mrs Ramsay has not alluded, 

 which tend materially to weaken her claim. 



There is also another circumstance, of which I suppose Mrs 

 Ramsay cannot be aware — viz., that these hounds were bought by 

 Mr Johnston from Lord Kintore ; that in 1828 Mr Johnston sold 

 these hounds, and they were purchased by the late Lord Hope- 

 toun for £300, which sum of £300 was repaid his lordship by 

 the counties out of his subscriptions. 



But as Mrs Ramsay has made up her mind, and in very pointed 

 terms declines a reference, it is of no use in my entering into 

 further explanations, or continuing the correspondence. It is, 



3G1 



