A YEAR S WORK IN THE KENNEL. 47 



they never seem to make such good foxes as where 

 one or a brace are killed, and the remainder find 

 some of their companions missing at the main earth 

 after the hounds have gone home. 



There was never a truer saying in connection with 

 foxhounds than ''Let them begin regular hunting 

 with blood up to their eyes.'' 



Blood is essential to a pack of foxhounds. To 

 show how necessary it is I will relate the following : 

 In a country I know well, that is lucky enough to 

 possess an excellent master and a beautifully bred 

 pack of hounds, foxes were very short one season, 

 in fact there was only one covert in the country 

 where a find was a certainty. By Christmas things 

 had got to such a pitch that blank days were 

 frequent, and hounds got very little blood indeed — 

 three brace during cub-hunting, and at Christmas 

 the total was only six-and-a-half brace, and nearly 

 all old foxes — with this result that all the younger 

 hounds began to riot badly. The season before 

 this state of things existed in the country, these 

 hounds were perfectly staunch and true to the line 

 of a fox. 



TKe following season things improved all round, 

 hounds got sufficient blood, and all riot disappeared. 



That season convinced me that the one thing 

 essential to a pack of foxhounds was " blood." 



The regular season having opened by the first 

 week in November, the coverts previously well 



