192 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



walk, with feet like the brood of ducks with which they 

 had been inclined to gambol, and therefore tied up, or, 

 at least, confined in some narrow space, to keep them 

 out of mischief This confinement is utterly ruinous 

 to their shape ; by bearing perpetually on the foot, it 

 becomes elongated ; legs, which would have been fault- 

 less, grow crooked ; and the whole symmetry of a fine 

 young hound is destroyed by contraction of the scope 

 which he requires for the development of his daily 

 increasing faculties. Mr. Meynell was so particular with 

 regard to walks, that he would not hesitate to send his 

 young hounds some hundred miles from Quorn, and 

 quarter several couples upon friends in Sussex, or in 

 any other counties where they would be sure of meeting 

 with the treatment upon which their maturity depended. 

 It is a fortunate circumstance in any country, where 

 gentlemen are disposed to receive such proteges at their 

 seats. The disadvantages of a walk in a town, are 

 more than proportionate to the advantage of making 

 them familiar with all those objects of which hounds, 

 on first entering upon the world, are apt to be shy. By 

 being exercised in couples, after their return to kennel, 

 along the public roads and through streets, they will 

 soon conquer any fear of carriages, droves, &c., and lose 

 altogether that mauvaise Jionte which is a defect rather 

 than an appertainment of their nature. Unless your reli- 

 ance is upon drafts from other kennels, nothing is more 

 essentia] to having a good pack of hounds, than a pro- 

 per care of the whelps, and the parents from which they 



