MR. WARD'S HOUNDS 89 



time a very brushing and awkward country to get across, but I never 

 saw him turn his head. He was, however, on a magnificent hunter, 

 called Blue-ruin, for which Mr. T. Smith offered a large price ; and 

 he has three other able horses for his own riding. 



Mr. Ward seldom misses a day being in the kennel, but he has a 

 good servant here in Neverd. They very seldom lose hounds in the 

 distemper. They find good keep the best preventive ; and nothing 

 answers better than dry barley meal, with a little oatmeal and good 

 rich broth. Neverd has a hound called Plaintiff now in his kennel, 

 which was seized with the distemper after he was entered, and never 

 stood up for three wrecks. He took no medicine except a little cream 

 of tartar : but was drenched with bullock's-cheek broth, and kept 

 very warm, till at last he was perfectly recovered. 



The discipline in Mr. Ward's kennel is very good, but I saw no 

 appearance of the whip. I witnessed one instance of it which I 

 could scarcely have believed to have been feasible. When the 

 hounds were on one side of the yard, Neverd went to the other, and 

 called out Bitches ! when every bitch-hound came forward, and every 

 dog-hound stood still. This is very useful on occasions. In the 

 field also Mr. Ward is a strict disciplinarian. He will have no 

 scoring to cry — no flying from a scent ; and those which do so are 

 down in his black book. 



Talking of books, Mr. Ward adopts one very good system. The 

 kennel book is brought to him every night, in which the draft for 

 the next day's hunting is entered. If any casualties or accidents 

 occur, they are entered opposite their names after hunting, so that 

 he always knows how to make his future drafts. The hounds entered 

 in the book for the day's sport always appear before his window as 

 they start for covert in the morning, and no alteration is ever made 

 in them. 



I was more than once asked what I thought of the speed of 

 Mr. Ward's hounds ? My opinion is, that the speed of the body of 

 fox-hounds of a certain size is much alike — the pace depending on 

 the head the scent enables them to carry ; for which reason all 

 hounds go faster over grass countries. From w^ant of scent, how- 

 ever, I had few opportunities of seeing the speed of this pack. 

 When they ran through the forest with their heads up, the pace was 



