LOOKED OVER AFTER HUNTING 23 



If many of your hounds, after long rest, should be too fat, 1 feeding them 

 for a day or two on thinner meat than you give the others, will be found, I 

 believe, to answer better than the usual method of giving them the same 

 meat, and stinting them in the quantity of it. 



If your hounds be not walked out, they should be turned into the grass- 

 court to empty themselves, after they have been fed : it will contribute not 

 a little to the cleanliness of the kennel. 



I have heard, that it is a custom in some kennels to shut up the hounds 

 for a couple of hours after they come in from hunting, before they are fed ; 

 and that other hounds are shut up with them, to lick them clean. 2 My 

 usual way is to send in a whipper-in before them, that the meat may be got 

 ready against they come, and they are fed immediately : having filled their 

 bellies, they are naturally inclined to rest. If they have had a severe day, 

 they are fed again some hours after. 3 As to the method above mentioned, 

 it may be more convenient, perhaps, to have the hounds all together ; but 

 I cannot think it necessary, for the reason that is given ; and I should appre- 

 hend, a parcel of idle hounds shut up amongst such as are tired and inclined 

 to rest, would disturb them more than all their licking would make amends 

 for. When you feed them twice, keep them separate till after the second 

 feeding : it would be still better, were they not put together till the next 

 morning. 



Every day, when hounds come in from hunting, they ought carefully to 

 be looked over, and invalids should immediately be taken care of. 4 Such 

 as have sore feet, should have them well washed out with brine, or pot-liquor. 

 If you permit those hounds that are unable to work, to run about your house, 

 it will be of great service to them. Such as are ill, or lame, ought to be 

 turned out into another kennel ; it will be more easy to give them there the 

 attention they may require, both as to medicine and food. 



Every Thursday during the hunting-season, my hounds have one pound 

 of sulphur given them in their meat ; and every Sunday throughout the year 

 they have plenty of greens boiled up with it : I find it better to fix the days, 

 as it is then less liable to be forgotten. I used to give them the wash from 

 the kitchen, but I found it made them thirsty ; and it is now omitted in the 



1 Hounds that rest should not be suffered to become fat. It would be accounting very 

 badly for the fatness of a hound, to say, ' He is fat because he has not worked lately ' ; since 

 he ought to have been kept lower on that account. 



2 If hounds be shut up as soon as they come in from hunting, they will not readily leave 

 the benches afterwards ; for if they be much fatigued, they will prefer rest to food. 



3 My hounds are generally fed twice on the days they hunt. Some will feed better the 

 second time than the first ; besides, the turning them out of the lodging-house refreshes them : 

 they stretch their limbs, empty their bodies ; and, as during this time their kennel is cleaned 

 out, and litter shaken up, they settle themselves better on the benches afterwards. 



4 Hounds that come home lame should not be taken out the next hunting day, since they 

 may appear sound without being so. At the beginning of the season, the eyes of hounds are 

 frequently injured : such hounds should not be hunted, and, if their eyes continue weak, they 

 should lose a little blood. 



