HINTS ON THE SUBJECT OF FEEDING 25 



they begin to hunt, they are exercised on the turnpike road, to harden 

 their feet, which are washed with strong brine as soon as they come in. 

 Little straw is necessary during the summer ; but when they hunt they 

 cannot have too much, or have it changed too often. In many kennels they 

 do not boil for the hounds in summer, but give them meal only : in mine it is 

 always boiled ; but with this difference, that it is mixed up thin, instead of 

 thick. Many give spurge-laurel in summer, boiled up in their meat : as I 

 never use it, I cannot recommend it. The physic that I give, is two pounds 

 of sulphur, one pound of antimony, and a pint and a half of syrup of buck- 

 thorn, for about forty couple of hounds. 1 In the winter season, let your 

 hounds be shut up warm at night. If, after hunting, any hounds be missing, 

 the straw-house door should be left open ; and, if they have had a hard day, 

 it may be as well to leave some meat there for them. 



I have inquired of my feeder (who is a good one, and has had more 

 experience in these matters than any one that you perhaps may get) how he 

 mixes up his meat. He tells me that, in his opinion, oatmeal and barley 

 mixed (an equal quantity of each) make the best meat for hounds. The oat- 

 meal he boils for half an hour, and then puts out the fire, puts the barley into 

 the copper, and mixes both together. I asked him, why he boiled one, and 

 not the other ? He told me, that boiling, which made oatmeal thick, made 

 barley thin ; and that when you feed with barley only, it should not be put 

 into the copper, but be scalded with the liquor, and mixed up in a bucket. I 

 find there is in my kennel a large tub on purpose, which contains about half 

 a hogshead. 



You little think, perhaps, how difficult it is to be a good kennel-hunts- 

 man ; nor can you, as yet, know the nicety that is required to feed hounds 

 properly. You are not aware, that some hounds will hunt best when fed 

 late ; others when fed early ; that some should have but little ; that others 

 cannot have too much : however, if your huntsman observe the rules that 

 I have here laid down, his hounds will not do much amiss. But should you 

 at any time wish to rencherir upon the matter, and feed each particular 

 hound so as to make the most of him, you must learn it of a gentleman in 

 Leicestershire, 2 to whom the noble science of fox-hunting is more beholden 

 than to any other. I shall myself say nothing further on the subject ; for 

 as your huntsman will not have the sense of the gentleman I allude to, nor 

 you, perhaps, his patience, an easier method I know will suit you best. I 

 shall only advise you, while you endeavour to keep your hounds in good 

 order, not to let them become too fat : it will be impossible for them to run, 

 if they be so. A fat alderman would cut a mighty ridiculous figure, were he 

 inclined to run a race. 



1 Vide page 24, where it is recommended that such hounds as require physic should be 

 physicked separately. 



* Hugo Meynell, Master of the Quorn, 1753-1800. 



