184 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



and a more unfortunate one could not have been chosen. 

 It was upon a very light, sandy soil, with sandstone 

 rock for substratum, and being superficially dry it was 

 conjectured that all the evils of kennel lameness would 

 be avoided — an opinion which at the time I ventured 

 to dissent from. The lodging-rooms were constructed 

 in a brick-built barn which had been erected some 

 years, and therefore dry, which it was expected would 

 insure the sound condition of the inmates, as many 

 persons ascribed the malady to the dampness of the 

 kennel walls — a conclusion which is far from being 

 correct. There is no doubt that kennel lameness isi 

 originally produced from the damp exhalations arising 

 from the earth, and from that cause rheumatism is 

 promoted by the hounds lying together in a large body ; 

 therefore the more porous the soil, the greater the 

 amount of exhalation. There is no question that the 

 disorder is also to a certain extent hereditary, inasmuch 

 that the produce of hounds so afflicted have a predis- 

 position, which will be brought out in a kennel having 

 a slight tendency to occasion the disease. It must also 

 be observed that there are different degrees of unhealthy 

 properties in kennels, depending upon the nature of 

 the soil on which they are built. 



Various plans have been resorted to for the purpose 

 of rendering unsound kennels healthy ; large stones, 

 chalk, clay, impervious cement, and all such devices 

 that human ingenuity can suggest have been introduced 

 under the lodging-rooms and yards in several kennels 

 which I am acquainted with, but without any satis- 

 factory result. I have only heard of two instances 

 where any permanent benefit has arisen from any plans 

 that have been tried in kennels decidedly unsound, and 

 those are with two packs of harriers, the respective 

 property of Mr. Jasper of Stableford in Shropshire, a 

 gentleman well-known as a very superior sportsman in 

 the Albrighton Hunt, and Mr. Wilson Roberts, for many 

 years Member for Bewdley in Worcestershire. Mr. 

 Jasper's hounds were so very lame from the kennel. 



