HAEEIEBS.] 



THE DOG, AND ITS VAEIETIES; 



[hareiers. 



have now, I believe, only omraitted one item, 

 and one in which the less is spent the better 

 — viz., drugs. Sulphur is always requisite, 

 and the supply should never be allowed to run 

 short ; and in the summer season, the ingre- 

 dients requisite for dressing the pack must, of 

 course, be procured — along with any other re- 

 quisites, which the sum of £10 ought amply to 

 provide. Puel— as the price and convenience 

 of obtaining this differ so materially, that in 

 some places it forms an expensive item, while 

 in others it is always ready to hand — I must 

 leave your inquirer to judge for himself what 

 addition it would form to his expenditure, 

 merely informing him that there is no getting 

 on without it. In my own case, using, as I 

 do, logs of wood which I have not to buy, I 

 consider from £8 to £10 covers the cutting 

 and carriage. Now for the summary of the 

 expense: meal, £90; carrion, £5 (I state a 

 low sum for this, as I consider if a full supply 

 of it is obtained the meal bill will be propor- 

 tionately reduced^ ; straw, £15 ; physic or 

 drugs, £10; fuel, £10; wages of whip and 

 boiler, £31 4*. ; a man for one quarter of a 

 day throughout the year, £4 lis. dd., at the 

 rate of Is. per diem. To this should be added 

 the board, lodging, and clothing of the whip, 

 with the lodging of the boiler. 



" By this it will be seen that the keep of four- 

 teen couple of harriers stands me in the sum 

 of £165 155. 3f/. in the year. I may, perhaps, 

 be a little high in putting down half a cwt. 

 per month of meal ; but, if I am, it will be 

 found that there are many little sundries that 

 will fully balance my tax. In conclusion, I 

 must add that, save in the meal bill, little 

 difference would be felt between the keep of 

 fourteen couple and twenty couple; whereas I 

 firmly believe no fourteen couple of hounds (I 

 speak of this country) could hunt three days 

 a week through a season. I now come to a 

 very important part of the question, viz., the 

 expense of getting up a pack of hounds — a 

 subject upon which I can speak from experi- 

 ence, as I smarted pretty considerably during 

 my apprenticeship. I will merely state the 

 filets as they appear in the kennel-ledger, as 

 follows:— £3, £30, £18, £5, £11, £60 105., 

 in all a sum of £127 10s., for which considera- 

 tion I got 34J- couple of hounds ; to which sum 

 I should make a very large addition for car- 

 426 



riage, as I got them from all parts of England ; 

 11|- couple I was made a present of; making, 

 in all, 46 couple. Since what I call the pur- 

 chasing era has passed, I have reared 32 couple 

 of puppies ; and now I can take into the field 

 as fair and evenly-matched a pack as ever 

 frightened the life out of the boldest reynard 

 that ever skirred a country." 



So much for Ireland ; and with one more 

 example of, and a few comments on harrier- 

 keeping in England, we will close this part of 

 our subject. A practical sporting gentleman, 

 writing on the same theme, gives, from his own 

 personal experience, the expense necessary to 

 carry on a hunting establishment of from 

 twelve to fourteen couples, to go out two or 

 three times a week, and also the expense of 

 building kennels, &e. "Having kept a pack 

 of hounds, consisting of twelve or fourteen 

 couples," he says, "and having built kennels 

 for them, I know pretty well the £ s. d. items 

 connected with such an establishment. In the 

 first place, hounds cannot work more than 

 three times a week. Hounds require bunting 

 twice a week to keep them steady and in good 

 condition ; but more than this it is unreason- 

 able to expect from them. To hunt twice a 

 week will entail the expense of four horses — 

 two for the huntsman, and two for his whip. 

 These, with good management and ordinary 

 luck, will see him through a season ; but, in 

 case of accident, I should recommend him to 

 commence the season with five horses, which 

 will render him completely master of his work. 

 Nothing, in my opinion, is so great a drawback 

 to sport as to be under-horsed ; and it must 

 ever be borne in mind that hunting harriers is 

 far more trying to horses than hunting fox- 

 hounds ; and no man can make the best of his 

 day's sport who does not ride close with his 

 pack in all their turnings. The expense of 

 horse-keeping will amount to something like 

 £45 a horse per annum. This item will, con- 

 sequently, be £225. The keeping of thirteen 

 couple of harriers will cost, in oatmeal and 

 flesh, something like £100 per annum ; a boy, 

 to boil flesh and attend to the pack, at 7s. per 

 week, £18 per annum ; taxes for horses and 

 hounds, something like £27; and sundrieSj 

 which are at all times heavy when horses and 

 hounds are kept, £25 — thus making the yearly 

 expense something like £395. Your kennel, 



