110 OUR PUPPIES: ENDLESS SOURCE 



maintain that, where it is possible to let the puppies 

 have plenty of grass to ramble over, it is a mistake 

 to take them far on the high-road till they are five 

 months old, or nearly that age. 



A pair of puppies whelped on January 29th were 

 sent to me one year, after being walked for several 

 months by a sportsman whose house was on the road- 

 side, and who did the puppies a bit too well, perhaps, 

 but certainly allowed them to follow his horse along 

 the road at too early an age. They were so crooked 

 that I begged to have them taken away ; and not 

 only were they crooked, but bony enlargements had 

 formed about the knee-joints. They were transferred 

 to a place inside the walls of the county town, where 

 they were unable to get on the roads, but had lots 

 of room to gambol about some large grass enclosures. 

 The way that they improved was marvellous. They 

 are not " plumb," certainly, but not very far from it. 



They are curious animals, these foxhound puppies ; 

 very wise, yet also very foolish in their ways ; and, 

 oh, how difficult to breed so that some fault shall 

 not be found ! Many of these faults come to them 

 when at walk, and crookedness is, no doubt, very 

 often one of these. 



The great "Squire's" Furrier was crooked, we are 

 told ; but as I have heard that his immediate descen- 

 dants were not, this points to the probability that 

 Furrier was not well walked — or, perhaps, was too 

 well walked. 



The puppies that I have known to be kept in too 

 confined a place, though not always crooked, were 

 invariably light of timber and not of powerful frame. 



