LETTER XXVIII. 



As THE season of the year arrives when the young 

 hounds are returned from their walks to the kennel, I 

 would remind masters of hounds of the necessity of a 

 more rational treatment than generally prevails with 

 regard to these young hopes of the pack. Having before 

 alluded to this subject in some of my former letters, and 

 treated generally of the distemper, which often makes 

 such fearful ravages among young hounds when first 

 brought into the kennel, I shall only here remark, that 

 air and exercise are not only the most necessary to keep 

 them in health, but will be found the most certain means 

 to prevent this scourge of the canine race assuming that 

 malignant character which it often does. The very fact 

 of shutting up a lot of young hounds together within four 

 walls for weeks together, which have been accustomed 

 up to that period to the free exercise of lungs and limbs 

 in the open air, must strike ^ny one, who for even ten 

 minutes considers the subject, as being not only absurd, 

 but cruel. That it has been the custom for many years, 

 and is so still in very many hunting establishments, is no 

 argument in its favour, but proves only that the master 

 gives himself little concern about the matter, and leaves 

 it to his huntsman. Can we be surprised, then, with so 

 little attention on his part to the proper treatment of his 



