Summer Worries in the Kennels 



MOST people are willing to admit that the staff in the 

 kennels of a big pack of hounds have a busy time during 

 the hunting season, but comparatively few people have 

 any idea of the summer activities of these men. 



When the old season passes away in a wisp of memo- 

 ries and summer is making her timorous advances, a 

 huntsman is faced by the most loathsome undertaking 

 imaginable, namely : Casting. It is an unenviable task 

 to walk into kennels on a glorious morning when the 

 world seems such a pleasant place, hear the clamorous 

 welcome of hounds, wade knee-deep through that sea 

 of dapples and then pass sentence on the old favourites 

 who are to be cast. The most unserviceable hounds 

 are chosen. Those who would be useless next season. 

 Most of them are old, rather worn out, and being much 

 too slow, would be altogether unable to run up with 

 the pack for another season. Others have damaged 

 knuckles, troublesome toe-nails, or foot ailments which 

 are detrimental to their usefulness. Quite often total 

 deafness is encountered and, as the note of a horn and 

 the tone of a command are lost on such animals, they 

 become mere liabilities. 



Occasionally some of these hounds end their lives 

 in luxurious idleness in the homes of people whose 



