THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 189 



little difficulty in obtaining it in perfection; but, as 

 particular grinding stones are necessary, in the first 

 instance, and the meal has then to be submitted to a 

 delicate process of kiln-drying, there are few places 

 in England to be depended upon for a supply. The 

 Scotch is said to be excellent; and I can speak, not 

 only from my own experience of the last seven years, 

 but from the report of at least a dozen different kennels, 

 as to the merits of the Irish. The great difference 

 which diet will effect, in the appearance and condition 

 of hounds, renders this point worthy of consideration. 

 The Roman gladiators imagined themselves injured by 

 the slightest deviation, in one meal, from the regimen 

 prescribed ; feeders of fighting cocks are no less strict 

 in their notions of the qualities of food ; and let any 

 man, who fancies that a good bellyful of victuals is all 

 that can be needed for hounds, try, for one fortnight, the 

 eftect of a change from oatmeal to barley meal of the 

 best kind, or from good oatmeal to inferior; he will 

 need no further illustration of the proverb, that "the 

 proof of the pudding is in the eating," as far as can be 

 judged by effects, which, in dumb animals, are the only 

 attestations of its excellence. When you see that, in 

 addition to the fulness of muscle, and general appear- 

 ance of health and condition in a hound, 



" His glossy skin, 

 In lights or shades by Nature's pencil drawn, 

 Keflects the various tints—" 



you may judge that there is nothing amiss in the home 



