LETTER IV. 39 



boiled with the flesh ; and, later in the summer, cabbages. 

 I have also given mangel wurzel ; but this must be used 

 with great caution at first, and requires a good deal of 

 flesh to counteract its laxative properties. Potatoes also, 

 when steamed, and mashed up, are good food, but if 

 boiled, the water in which they are cooked should never 

 be given with them. During the summer months my 

 hounds had always whey once or twice a week. I got it 

 at a neighbouring dairy farm, and used to pay 5s. for the 

 meal, which was sufficient for thirty couples of hounds. 



It is a good plan to have hounds brushed over when 

 they are shedding their coats ; and as at this time the 

 mange will sometimes make its appearance, turn the hair 

 back, from the stern up to the head with one hand, and 

 sprinkle a little plain sulphur with the other, so as to get 

 into the roots of the hair ; smooth it down again, and, 

 two days afterwards, give the hound a good brushing 

 with the flesh-brush. Some huntsmen are very fond of 

 swimming their hounds in the summer months. Once 

 or twice it can do no harm ; but if had recourse to often 

 it will make their coats coarse, and produce mange. 

 The old and young hounds should take at least two hours' 

 exercise with the horses alternate days, before breakfast. 

 When they return, they should be fed lightly, and have 

 their dinner at four or five o'clock in the evening. I 

 have always fed my hounds twice a day ; their breakfast 

 was strictly a breakfast only — a small bucket of pudding 

 to two of broth for ten couples of hounds, all let in 

 together ; but if any hounds were thin, and bad feeders, 

 they were fed more liberally. I found hounds do better 

 upon the same quantity of food given at two diflerent 

 meals, than at one only. During the summer months 



