16 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



kennel into which the hounds intended to hunt the 

 next day, are drafted. Used always to the same 

 kennel, they will be drafted with little trouble ; they 

 will answer to their names more readily, and you may 

 count your hounds into the kennel with as much ease 

 as a shepherd counts his sheep out of the fold. 



When the feeder first comes to the kennel in a 

 morning, he should let out the hounds into the outer 

 court ; and in bad weather he should open the door 

 of the hunting-kennel, lest want of rest should incline 

 them to go into it. The lodging-room should then 

 be cleaned out, the doors and windows of it opened, 

 the litter shaken up, and the kennel made sweet and 

 clean, before the hounds return to it again. The 

 ereat court and the other kennels, are not less to be 

 attended to, nor should you pass over in silence any 

 omission that is hurtful to your hounds. 



The floor of each lodging-room should be bricked, 

 and sloped on both sides to run to the centre, with 

 a gutter left to carry off the water, that when they 

 are washed, they may be soon dry. If water should 

 remain, through any fault in the floor, it should be 

 carefully mopped up ; for as warmth is in the greatest 

 degree necessary to hounds after work, so damps are 

 equally prejudicial. You will think me, perhaps, too 

 particular in these directions ; yet there can be no 

 harm in your knowing what your servants ought to 

 do ; as it is not impossible but it may be sometimes 

 necessary for you to see that it is done. In your 

 military profession, you are perfectly acquainted with 

 the duty of a common soldier ; and though you have 



