The Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Hunt. 19 



Mastership under very favourable conditions, both in regard to the stock 

 of foxes left in the country and the quality of the hounds. One great 

 ambition of the new Master was to bring about an extension of the 

 territory, and there had long been a hankering after a portion of the 

 Ayrshire side. 



When Sir David Buchanan first hunted the country he traversed part 

 of Ayrshire from Caldwell to Brownmuir, but when the fourteenth Earl 

 of Eglinton established his pack in 1861 a controversy arose as to the 

 border line between the two Hunts. Lord Eglinton maintained that he 

 was entitled to hunt as far as the county boundary, but Sir David was 

 obdurate on the point, and it was only after considerable argument, with 

 a vast amount of correspondence, that the county boundary became the 

 accepted border line between the neighbouring packs. 



The fifteenth Earl of Eglinton, who had previously gained such renown 

 as a sportsman when known as the Hon. George Montgomerie, was evidently 

 more amenable in the matter of granting a concession of territory, for it 

 was chiefly through his generous action and the untiring efforts and per- 

 suasive powers of Mr. Barclay and others on this side that the Renfrewshire 

 pack could hunt over such a large portion of the adjoining county. Going 

 as far as Dunlop House on the one side, these hounds can now draw (under 

 the amicable arrangement with the Eglinton Hunt) the whole of Caldwell 

 estate, Trearne estate, Giffen, and Woodside, while coming back to the 

 Renfrewshire side such foxy quarters as Beckam Hill, Cuff hill, and Brown- 

 muir can be called upon. I make this explanation at this juncture, as in 

 dealing with the sport of the past twenty years, which is the main purpose 

 of this work, the Ayrshire side must be frequently touched upon. It may 

 be added that great improvements in the parts referred to have been carried 

 out at different times, and what with the arrangements for removal of wire 

 and the erection of hunt jumps where absolutely necessary, the country is 

 now much more huntable than it formerly was. Beyond Trearne, however, 

 it is still a veritable birdcage of wire. 



The new Master appointed as his huntsman Will Webster, who had 

 for a number of years acted as first whip, and the new whips were Jack 

 Scott (the present huntsman of the Morpeth) and Will Tomlinson, who 

 has for several years been hunting Lord Eglinton's hounds. 



The season proper opened on 2nd November, 1901, with the usual 



