HORSES AND HOUNDS. 69 



the otlier roof, will break the monotony of its appearance. At 

 the rear of the kennels should be the boiling house, feeding 

 court, straw house, and separate lodgings for bitches. In front 

 of the kennels, and extending round to the back door of the 

 feeding house, should be a good large green-yard, enclosed by 

 a wall or palings. The former I prefer, although, perhaps, most 

 expensive, for several reasons : hounds being able to see 

 through the latter, will be excited by passing objects, and 

 young hounds (for whose service the green-yard is more par- 

 ticularly intended) are inclined to become noisy, by barking 

 and running round the palings when any strange dog passes by. 

 Having used palings at first in my own yard, I was obliged to 

 remove them, from the following circumstance : — One day, 

 whilst the young hounds were out at their usual game of romps, 

 running round the palings, a mad dog chanced to pass by. 

 One of them was bitten, and I lost seven couples, and but for 

 the greatest watchfulness, I should have lost the whole pack. 

 Upon this subject I shall make further remarks hereafter. ^ 



In the boiling house you will require two cast iron boilers, 

 one for the meal, the other for flesh. If a spring of good water 

 can be made available, by being conducted first into the boiling 

 house and then through the kennels, by earthenware pipes, it 

 will save much time and labour to the feeder ; if not, a well 

 should be sunk near the boiling house. By having large wooden 

 spouts under the eaves of the roof of the kennels, and tanks or 

 water-butts to receive the rain water, enough may be saved to 

 wash the kennels ; but for cooking purposes the purest water is 

 requisite. Allow of no stagnant pools near the kennels. To 

 each lodging room there should be two doors ; one at the back, 

 with a small sliding panel high up, through which the huntsman 

 may observe the hounds, without their seeing him ; another 

 door in the front, with a large opening cut at the bottom, high 

 enough and wide enough for a hound to pass through easily, 

 and which should always be left open at night to allow free 

 egress to the court. There must be another door also in the 

 partition wall between each kennel, by which in the summer 

 two lodging rooms may be thrown together. The benches 

 should be made of pine or oak spars, and not nailed on to the 

 frame, but joined together by threes or fours. They can thus 

 be easily taken up, and the frame moved aside, whilst the kennel 

 is being washed down. The height of the benches from the 

 floor should be about two feet, which will admit of tired hounds 

 easily lying down. I need hardly remark, that a mop is very 

 essential to the cleanliness of the kennel, and will be in constant 

 requisition. Stone or iron troughs are best for the hounds to 



