HAWICK TO ST. BOSWELL^S. 227 



had seven foals at Dalkeith, sixof wliicL. were ridden 

 by his Grace. Marotto by Valparaiso was her half- 

 brother, and did the Duke good service for seven or 

 eight seasons. Still, he was never very canny with 

 hounds, and Williamson was always "jealous of 

 him^^ on this head. He was a short-legged, dark ches- 

 nut, of greater power than Moultan, and generally 

 got his stock bay with short legs, and very good the 

 Midlands thought them. 



A big grey skin, which Mr. Hodge preserves 

 along with the feet of Moultan, was all that we saw 

 of Star. During eleven seasons he had shown no 

 symptoms of failure, but in the March of ^64 his 

 Grace found the field riding away from him in a sharp 

 forty minutes from Minto. The old horse seemed 

 as willing as ever, but nature could do no more, and 

 the second horse, Paddy from Cork, was called up. 

 The grey was bought, "pedigree unknown,■'^ from 

 Mr. Kench in the Dunchurch country, and stood 

 nearly sixteen- two. Just three years before, his 

 Grace had ridden him and hunted the hounds in one 

 of their hardest days, with a second fox from the 

 little whin at Marl field by March cleugh across the 

 old Roman road, without touching Bludie Laws, past 

 Kinneartonand straight over Bearhope Hill, pointing 

 to the Horse Shoe plantation. Here^he was headed, 

 and bent towards Gateshaws, where the hounds got 

 to slow hunting, and were stopped near Moor Battle 

 after 3i hours. Only four or five were up beside his 

 Grace, young Hope of LufFness on another grey, 



2 Q 2 



