SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 135 



CHAPTER XVII. 



"Upon some little eminence erect, 

 Fronting to the ruddy dawn ; its courts 

 On either hand, wide op'ning to receive 

 The sun's all-cheering beams." — Somerville. 



Sites of kennels — New building preferable to old — Ancient mansions— 

 The Belvoir kennels the model for all others — Ground and aspect 

 — Too small dimensions bad economy — The Author's ideas on the 

 subject — Drainage — Hot air — Walls and palings — Seclusion — 

 Supply of water — Tanks Hobson's choice— Other observations on 

 the kennel — "Warm lodging as necessary as good feeding — Whole- 

 some meat indispensable to health. 



Befoee purchasing a bird, it is generally thought 

 advisable to provide a cage to keep him in ; but in. 

 our discourses about hounds, we have assumed it 

 as granted that a kennel had been already erected 

 for their accommodation in. the country taken by a 

 new master ; such, however, not being invariably 

 the case, and some old kennels being so badly 

 placed, or in such a dilapidated condition, as to 

 require a considerable outlay in repairs, we would 

 offer the advice of one somewhat experienced in 

 these matters, to any young aspirant for honours 

 in " the noble science,'" never to make the attempt 

 of patching up an old rickety building, whose loose 

 walls have become a receptacle for vermin of all 

 kinds — rats, mice, and creeping things supposed to 

 enact the part of phlebotomists to animals of the 

 canine species during the dog daj^s. Those who 



