22 THOUGHTS ON HUNTING 



and, I assure you, I know no huntsman who is equal to it. The gentleman 

 who has carried this matter to its utmost perfection, has attended to it 

 regularly himself ; has constantly acted on fixed principles, from which he 

 has never deviated ; and, I believe, has succeeded to the very utmost of his 

 wishes. All hounds (and more especially young ones) should be called 

 over often in the kennel ; 1 and most huntsmen practise this lesson as they 

 feed their hounds : they flog them while they feed them ; and if they have 

 not always a belly-full one way, they seldom fail to have it the other. 2 It 

 is not, however, my intention to oppose so general a practice, in which there 

 may be some utility ; I shall only observe, that it should be used with dis- 

 cretion ; lest the whip should fall heavily, in the kennel, on such as never 

 deserve it in the field. 



My hounds are generally fed about eleven o'clock ; s and, when I am 

 present myself, I take the same opportunity to make my draft for the next 

 day's hunting. I seldom, when I can help it, leave this to my huntsman ; 

 though it is necessary that he should be present when the draft is made, that 

 he may know what hounds he has out. 



It is a bad custom to use hounds to the boiling-house ; it is apt to make 

 them nice, and may prevent them from ever eating the kennel meat. What 

 they have should always be given them in the feeding-yard ; and for the 

 same reason, though it be flesh, it should have some meal mixed with it. 



If your hounds be low in flesh, and have far to go to cover, they may all 

 have a little thin lap again in the evening ; but this should never be done if 

 you hunt early. 4 Hounds, I think, should be sharp-set before hunting: 

 they run the better for it. 5 



1 There is no better method of teaching a hound obedience ; when you call him he should 

 approach you ; and when you touch him with your stick, he should follow you anywhere. 



2 ' Thus we find, eat or not eat, work or play, whipping is always in season.' (Vide 

 Monthly Review.) The critic treats this passage with great severity. He would have spared 

 it, without doubt, had he understood that it was introduced on purpose to correct the abuse of 

 kennel-discipline. Unacquainted as the reviewer seems to be with the subject, it is no wonder 

 that he should mistake a meaning, perhaps rather unfairly stated by the author, in favour of 

 that humanity which he is supposed so much to want. Hounds are called in to feed, one by 

 one, and such only are corrected as come uncalled for : nor is correction unjust, so long as it 

 shall fall on the disobedient only. Obedience is an useful lesson, and though it cannot be 

 practised too often, it should be taught them at a more idle time. 



3 Having found it necessary to alter my method of feeding hounds, it may not be im- 

 proper to take notice of it here. They are now fed at eight o'clock, instead of eleven. Their 

 first feed is of barley and oatmeal mixed, an equal quantity of each. Flesh is afterwards mixed . 

 up with the remainder, for such hounds as are poor, who are then drafted off into another 

 kennel, and let in to feed altogether. When the flesh is all eaten, the pack are again let in, 

 and are by this means cheated into a second appetite. At three o'clock, those that are to hunt 

 the next day are drafted into the hunting-kennel ; they are then let into the feeding-yard, where 

 a small quantity of oatmeal (about three buckets) is prepared for them, mixed up thick. 

 Such as are tender, or bad feeders, have a handful of boiled flesh given to them afterwards. 

 When they are not to hunt the next day, they are fed once only, at eleven o'clock. 



* Hounds that are tender feeders cannot be fed too late, or with meat too good. 

 8 Vide note 3 supra. 



