10 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



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 no further business with the minutiae of it, without doubt you 

 still find the knowledge of them useful to you. Believe me, they may be 

 useful here ; and you will pardon me, I hope, if I wish to see you a Martinet 

 in the kennel, as well as in the field. Orders given without skill are seldom 

 well obeyed ; and where the master is either ignorant or inattentive, the 

 servant will be idle. 



I also wish that, contrary to the usual practice in building kennels 

 you would have three doors ; two in the front, and one in the back ; the 

 last to have a lattice-window in it, with a wooden shutter, which is con- 

 stantly to be kept closed when the hounds are in, except in summer, when 

 it should be left open all the day. This door answers two very necessary 

 purposes : it gives an opportunity of carrying out the straw when the 

 lodging-room is cleaned, and, as it is opposite to the window, will be a 

 means to let in a thorough air, which will greatly contribute to keep it 

 sweet and wholesome. The other doors will be of use in drying the room 

 when the hounds are out ; and as one is to be kept shut, and the other 

 hooked back (allowing just room for a dog to pass), they are not liable to 

 any objection. The great window in the centre should have a folding 

 shutter ; half, or the whole, of which may be shut at nights, according 

 to the weather : and your kennels, by that means, may be kept warm or 

 cool, just as you please to have them. The two great lodging-rooms are 

 exactly alike, and, as each has a court belonging to it, are distinct kennels, 

 situated at the opposite ends of the building ; in the centre of which is 

 the boiling-house and feeding-yard ; and on each side a lesser kennel, 

 either for hounds that are drafted off, hounds that are sick, or lame ; or 

 for any other purposes, as occasion may require ; at the back of which, 

 as they are but half the depth of the two great kennels, are places for coals, 

 etc., for the use of the kennel : there is also a small building in the rear 

 for hot bitches : the plan will show you the size of the whole. The floors 

 of the inner courts, like those of the lodging-rooms, are bricked, and sloped 

 towards the centre ; and a channel of water, brought in by a leaden pipe, 

 runs through the middle of them. In the centre of each court is a well, 

 large enough to dip a bucket, to clean the kennels : this must be faced 

 with stone, or it will be often out of repair : in the feeding-yard it should 

 have a wooden cover. 



