CHASTISING THEM IN THE KENNEL 81 



deal of law, and you will do well to break his 

 teeth. l 



If you run any cubs to ground in an indifferent 

 country, and do not want blood, bring them home, 

 and they will be of use to your young hounds. Turn 

 out bag-foxes to your young hounds, but never to 

 your old ones. I object to them on many accounts : 

 but of bag-foxes I shall have occasion to speak 

 hereafter. 



The day after your hounds have had blood, is also 

 a proper time to send them where there is riot, and 

 to chastise them, if they deserve it : it is always best 

 to correct them when they cannot help knowing what 

 they are corrected for. When you send out your 

 hounds for this purpose, the later they go out the 

 better ; as the worse the scent is, the less inclinable 

 will they be to run it, and, of course, will give less 

 trouble in stopping them. It is a common practice 

 with huntsmen, to flog their hounds most unmercifully 

 in the kennel. I have already mentioned my disap- 

 probation of it ; but, if many of your hounds be obsti- 

 nately riotous, 2 you may with less impropriety put a 

 live hare into the kennel to them, flogging- them as 

 often as they approach her : they will then have some 



1 The critic says, " there is neither justice nor equity in breaking his 

 teeth." {Vide. Monthly Review.) I confess there is not; and I never 

 know that it is done, but I feel all the force of the observation. It is a 

 custom, as Shakespeare says on another occasion, 



" More honoured in the breach than the observance." 



2 This passage has also been thought deserving of censure, though its 

 motive is humane. By these means the disobedient are taught obedience, 

 and a more general punishment prevented, which the effect of bad 

 example might otherwise make necessary. 



G 



