LETTER XX. 



Although Beckford has been and still is considered the 

 -first authority on hunting matters, yet I cannot subscribe 

 to his doctrine upon some points, neither can his theory 

 and practice be admitted to be consistent. In one of his 

 letters he states that his chief object in writing was to 

 prevent the improper use of discipline, and that " we 

 ought not to suffer unnecessary severity to be used with 

 an animal to whom we are obliged for so much diversion." 

 Upon feeding hounds he remarks, " All hounds (more 

 especially young ones) should be called over often in the 

 kennel, and most huntsmen practise this lesson as they 

 feed their hounds ; they flog them while they feed them, 

 and if they have not always a bellyful one way, they 

 seldom fail to have it the other." Instead of condemning 

 so monstrous and barbarous a practice, of which any 

 huntsman who could be guilty ought himself to have 

 been flogged at the cart-tail, he coolly remarks^ " It is 

 not, however, my intention to oppose so general a prac- 

 tice, in which there may be some utility. I shall only 

 observe, that it should be used with discretion, lest the 

 whip should fall heavily in the kennel on such as never 

 deserve it in the field." Very milk-and-water indeed. 

 I can only say that a man who would flog hounds in this 

 manner, and at feeding time, above all other times of 



