138 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



According to the number of hounds must be 

 the dimensions of their sleeping apartments, but 

 for a moderate establishment two rooms, eighteen 

 feet long by sixteen wide, and ten feet high, and 

 two smaller for lame or sick hounds on either side, 

 sixteen feet deep by twelve wide. The courts 

 must be of greater length, and in place of having 

 the outer doors opening into the fields or park, we 

 would prefer an entrance into a passage running 

 up between the two kennels, as in the Belvoir plan, 

 at the other end of which stands the feeding-house 

 under the same roof, and into which hounds may 

 be drawn throuo-h a side-door in the lodginoj-room, 



CD O O ' 



without being obliged to wait shivering in cold 

 or wet weather whilst being fed, with no cover 

 over their heads. The two larger we will call 

 the hunting kennels ; and by having two of mode- 

 rate size, instead of one, the pack will always 

 enter upon a dry floor every morning, which is of 

 great consequence, damp being always productive 

 of rheumatism and mange, as well as other mala- 

 dies to which dogs are subject. To prevent this, 

 the flooring^ also of the dormitories ouo^ht to be of 

 brick, and the inside walls lined with the same 

 materia], if not entirely built with it ; and for 

 partitions between lodging-rooms a single brick 

 is quite sufficient. It signifies little what the 

 flooring of the outer courts may be, whether of 

 stone pennant or concrete, provided they are frost- 

 proof, and so laid with a sufficient fall to the cen- 

 tre that no water can stand upon them. We say 

 fall to the centre, because hounds are less liable to 



