SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 141 



too glad to get it, a thunderstorm in hot weather 

 proving to them a Godsend in a dry season, when 

 a fearful fathoming of tanks is commenced, to 

 ascertain how many inches of the precious fluid 

 yet remain before the next downfall of rain is 

 expected. For the water-troughs in the kennel, 

 slate is the best and most easily kept clean, iron 

 next, stone and wood last. These ought to be placed 

 about eighteen inches above the floor or flags, with 

 a plug-hole at the bottom, standing over the drain, 

 and fresh water added every morning. 



To keep the lodging-houses clean, access must be 

 free for the hounds into the outer courts, either by 

 the door being left partly open, or through an aper- 

 ture in the centre of it — a movable panel sus- 

 pended by a hinge from above, to turn either way. 

 In hot weather it is preferable to leave the doors 

 quite open during the night. All the posts of doors 

 through which hounds have to pass should be 

 rounded, to prevent injury to their stifles. The 

 frame of the sleeping-benches should be made of 

 red deal, standing upon legs of oak, two feet high 

 from the floor, and spars of deal three inches wide 

 by one and a half in thickness, four or five of these 

 joined together movable — not nailed to the frame 

 — so that they may be all taken ofl" by the feeder 

 when the litter is taken up in the morning ; and if 

 any are wet, they can thus be easily dried in the 

 sun or before the boiling-house fire. The distance 

 between the spars must not exceed one inch and 

 a half "We object to the benches being fastened 

 to the wall for two reasons : the hounds will be 



