J 40 FIELD AND FERN. 



during the season ; but Saltoun, Long Tester^ and 

 Eckyside Hill have all become very hollow. 



The hunting begins early in September, with '^^the 

 wliole fleet'^ at The Hopes, that great juniper cover 

 of the Lammermoors, and goes on one day a week 

 at Newbyth, Tyningham, and Coalston Wood. 

 Newbyth and Tyningham often furnish four or 

 five litters, but the greater part of the foxes are laid 

 up in old coal mines near Elphinstone Tower and 

 Ormiston Hall. Atkinson, the huntsman, who is 

 now in his sixth season, has had an exploring journey 

 for miles under them, and heard the cubs scam- 

 pering in all directions. 



The hill-jumping is entirely confined to walls ; but 

 in the low ground, it is hedge and ditch, and the 

 ditches and burns are most unpromising about Drem. 

 Both the masters are hard riders, and the Hopes, 

 Scot Skirvmg, Innes of Phantassie,"^'" Tweedie of The 

 Coates, Ford of Harding Green, and Primrose of 

 Lauchland are also among the first flight. Sir 

 David^s well-known chesnnt Crimea was shot last 

 autumn, and Strand, Hope, a chesnut who had 

 been extensively "repaired," and Purvis, whose 

 ugliness does not interfere with his goodness, are 

 Atkinson's best. 



* An old friend has ndded the followhig to oiu* prev-ions remarks on the late 

 Mr. Rennic of Phantassie : " He was an extremely shrewd man, and farmed 

 Phantassie exceedinglj^ well ; hut he never was a breeder of shorthorns, so to 

 speak. He had an extensive whisky distillery at Linton, close by Phantassie, 

 imd with ' the dxough and dreg,' as the Scotchmen call it, he ' bred up and 

 fed off in sheds from three to four hnnch-ed head of cattle all the year round. 

 He was an excellent judge of shorthorns, but his son, -iWth whom I had many 

 transactions, knew very little about them." 



