CAUTION AS TO MADNESS. 151 



entry for the year was sent to Harrold from Berkeley 

 Castle, the man who brought them delivered to me a 

 letter, stating that there had been a mad dog through 

 the Vale of Berkeley, whieh had bitten several things ; 

 and amonof the animals he was seen to assault, was a 

 foxhound puppy sent to me, but whose name at this 

 moment I forget. This pnppy he had run at and 

 knocked over, but though he had run against him, 

 on the closest examination no bite could be found, 

 and not an erasure of the skin nor anything like it. 

 The puppy was a promising one, and witli this cau- 

 tion I received him. Orders were given by me to 

 my men to watch the young hound well, and to 

 report at once if they saw the slightest change in 

 health or disposition. I not only always fed ray 

 hounds myself, but it was my custom every day to 

 play with the young hounds and make them handy 

 to their names, to kennel usage, and to couples. In 

 fact, teaching them to distinguish a look of approbation 

 and a word of praise from a frown or a gruff chide in 

 anger: with a long kennel gown on, reaching from 

 my chin to my foot, they were welcome to leap up 

 and pull me about as much as they pleased ; in this 

 familiar way it was astonishing the ascendency, without 

 a blow, that I soon obtained over them. I was sitting 

 on their bedstead, caressing those that sought me, and 

 watching others in their graceful play, my eye always 

 open to the caution as to the mad dog ; when before 

 I had been in the kennel five minutes I perceived 

 that the puppy, as to whom I had received tlie letter, 

 refused to play with any of the others, and without 

 seeming to have anything the matter with him looked 

 bored (that is the best description I can give of it) 

 with his fellows when they invited him to a romp. 



L 4 



