122 HUNTING. 



Upon some little eminence erect, 

 And fronting to the ruddy dawn ; its courts 

 On either hand wide opening to receive 

 The sun's all-cheering beams. 



And he is right. It should stand on open and rising ground ; 

 not in a bleak exposed situation, so that the winds of heaven 

 visit it too roughly ; but on the other hand, not in a hollow, or 

 on low-lying ground, or too much shut in and overshadowed 

 by trees. The Ascot Kennels, which have much such a situa- 

 tion, and are built moreover on sand with a substratum of bog, 

 long suffered from that mortal scourge which among men is 

 known as rheumatism, and among hounds as kemiel lameness ; 

 nor was it till Charles Davis had a false flooring put so as to 

 admit a free current of air, that the evil really disappeared. It 

 may be here remarked, however, that in very many cases kennel 

 lameness is another name for kennel idleness, i.e. want of exer- 

 cise in summer and putting hounds to hard work unprepared 

 by horse exercise. 



The material of which the kennel should be built, and the 

 style of the architecture must be determined, of course, by the 

 taste and the purse of the owner. But there is a good deal of 

 sense in Beckford's suggestion that it should have ' a neatness 

 without, as well as cleanliness within, the more to tempt you to 

 it.' For the same reason, he advises it should be as near the 

 house as possible. A chorus from a restless pack is, no doubt, 

 not an agreeable lullaby, nor is the smell of the boiling house 

 the sweetest of perfumes ; but there is a mean in all things, 

 and such a measure of distance between the homes of the 

 master and his hounds may be contrived as to avoid all un- 

 pleasantness to the former, while keeping the latter under his 

 supervision. Good servants are, probably, more plentiful now 

 than they were in Beckford's time, when the demand for them 

 is so much greater, and their rewards so much higher. Never- 

 theless, a master who leaves everything to his servants, whether 

 in house, kennel, or stable, is not likely to be so well served 

 as he who makes it understood that he knows how thincs 



