LETTER XXV. 273 



tinguish who is their master, and if he is kind to them, 

 and can kill foxes for them, he need not give himself any 

 concern about their good will to serve him or attachment 

 to his person. Mr. Smith, I believe, seldom feeds his 

 hounds; but any one who could witness his reception 

 among them at the covert side would not be long in 

 doubt as to the feelings they entertain towards their 

 master. Lord Darlington and the great Mr. Meynell 

 generally fed, or saw their hounds have their dinners, 

 before sitting down to their own on hunting days; and, 

 I must confess, I did not think I could do better than 

 follow such good examples. The time occupied in feed- 

 ing from eighteen to twenty couples of hounds, when 

 their food was ready, which was generally the case 

 before I dismounted from my horse at the kennel door, 

 did not occupy more than from ten to fifteen minutes. 

 After feeding the hounds left at home in kennel, the 

 feeder prepared for the hunting hounds. The meal and 

 meat were mixed together ready in the troughs, and at 

 the first blast of the horn the broth was added hot from 

 the boiling house ; so that we were never kept waiting 

 more than two or three minutes at any time. From long 

 practice, and thorough knowledge of the hounds, I could 

 feed twenty couples as easily as I could five at a time. 



I tried the experiment once of letting a huntsman have 

 the management of my hounds in the field, but it would 

 not do — half the pleasure was gone ; and I came to the 

 conclusion, before the expiration of the first month, that 

 I must either hunt the hounds myself again or give them 

 up entirely. Gentlemen who merely take the manage- 

 ment of a pack of foxhounds derive only a secondary 

 pleasure from the sport, and I feel assured, were it a 



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