L30/9/60/47

Sent from Wrest Park, Typed transcript available:

1774

From: 1774 To: 1774

Snowy day. "I imagine you are all setting by your firesides or walking about the library not extremely well satisfied." Hunting - " A report was spread that a fox had been seen by the pavilion, upon which all the bow-wows were brought into the garden and ran yelping about the woods to no purpose. The horses all stayed at the bottom of Cainhill, the huntsmen ran about on foot, and Lord Polwarth and Sir F[rancis] walked about the terrace and grumbled." "Yesterday they killed a fine old gentleman with a huge brush." Sir Francis, little success with recruiting. Stories told by Sir Francis... about his sergeant "who makes a sort of proclamation from the drumhead, beginning with"Ye Heroes of Bedfordshire." Visited "the intended walk"; got lost; strayed into a bog and lost a shoe; finished up at the gamekeeper's where Mrs Burleigh gave her a pair of dry woollen stockings and an old pair of shoes that probably belonged to her grandmother. Approves the scheme, but no walk can be well set about at present (November). "I agree with you that the narrow path should turn off from the gate, and I would propose a little turn by a large ash tree instead of carrying it quite straight, and I have found a good corner for a rustic seat." More about the Duke of Atholl.

item

Polwarth,
Murray, John (3rd Duke of Atholl),
Burleigh,
Yorke, Jemima

personal correspondence, libraries, hunting, foxes, horses, huntsman, gamekeepers, trees