THE KENNEL. 121 



being of the hound as we are so often reminded they are to his 

 master. Nay, it may be said that, in proportion, they are 

 even more so ; for, while some men do certainly in this world 

 contrive to get on without them, we are very sure no hound 

 can. It must never be forgotten that both the horses and the 

 hounds used for the chase are a very different sort of animals 

 from what they are in their natural state. Their state is one 

 not of nature but of art : a highly artificial state. They differ 

 as much after their kind from the nag who picks up his living 

 off" a common, or from the village cur, as their masters difi*er 

 from the Digger Indians, or the aboriginals of the Australian 

 bush. The man of civilisation who lives in a damp, ill-drained, 

 ill-ventilated house will never be able to do his work properly, 

 even if he can get through life at all. And it is the same with 

 horse and hound. But extravagance is not an essential to 

 hound or horse any more than to man. He who hunts five or 

 six days in the week will naturally require a much larger and 

 costlier establishment than he who hunts two or three. The 

 conditions under which hunting is, one might perhaps say 

 must be, now earned on in the Shires will entail a larger out- 

 lay than will be found necessary in those less fashionable parts 

 of hunting Britain known as the Provinces — where, however, 

 the sport, if less splendid, is not seldom quite as good. But 

 even in the former case economy can be and should be prac- 

 tised. Superfluities should be avoided as well as shortcomings, 

 and ostentation is in its way as distasteful and as injurious to 

 sport as parsimony. Hunting is certainly not an amusement 

 to be enjoyed for nothing, or even for very little, whether it be 

 enjoyed in the state of a master of hounds, or in the more 

 simple capacity of a private mdividual ; but it may be enjoyed 

 for very much less money than is perhaps popularly supposed, 

 and certainly is very often expended on it Not every man 

 can go to Corinth ; but it is quite possible for a wise man to 

 get a good deal of pleasure less far afield. 



The situation of the kennel is of first-rate importance. It 

 should be built, says Somerville, 



