THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 199 



effects of bad weather, if kept cold in their kennel. 

 The warmer and more comfortable they are kept 

 within doors, the better can they battle with the ele- 

 ments without. It is, beyond doubt, a great principle 

 freely to admit 



" The nitrous air and purifying breeze," 



whether in a kennel or a palace ; but there are proper 

 times for such a circulation, in both. We open the 

 windows and doors of our chambers, but not during 

 the period of their occupation, in the hunting season; 

 nor should the zephyrs of the northern blast be playing 

 uncontrolled over the slumbering bodies of hounds, 

 worn out with the toil and heat of chase. They huddle 

 all together on their htter, courting, by every means in 

 their power, the warmth by which all nature is revived 

 and nourished. No kennel is perfect without the means 

 of warm ventilation, which may easily be supplied by 

 flues, where the copper of the boihng-house is conti- 

 guous, as it generally is, to the lodging-houses. As 

 soon as the hounds emerge reeking from their baths, 

 they should be fed. Some have been of opinion, that 

 they should first be made comfortable on their beds ; 

 but I am inclined to think, that the sooner they are 

 supplied with the support which exhaustion from fatigue 

 so much demands, the better ; they are then turned, for 

 a brief space, into their airing yard, and then consigned 

 to their dormitory for the night, to be distui-bed only 



