106 HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



could stir it no longer; but tliis makes a sad hole in the 

 master s pocket. A certain quantity should be given out daily, 

 and I would recommend you to keep the key in your own 

 pocket. One pound of good old oatmeal is sufficient for any 

 middle-sized hound. Less will do with small hounds, when 

 well boiled, with the addition of meat and broth. The thicker 

 the pudding is made, the more liquor it will take when being 

 mixed up. 



It is the custom in some establishments to take all horses, 

 dead or alive, diseased or healthy, which are brought to the 

 kennel. I need scarcely observe that, if you wish to keep your 

 hounds healthy, you must not feed them upon unv/holesome 

 food ; and I would recommend you not to give any horses which 

 have died of disease to your hounds. Purchase the horses for 

 the kennel, and keep them for a week or two before they 

 are killed. In some localities dog horses are scarce, in others 

 almost too plentiful; the a.verage price is from fourteen shil- 

 lings to a pound. Some huntsmen, when flesh is scarce, give 

 graves : I would nearly as soon give poison. It is the most 

 foul, heating food that ever was destined for the stomach of a 

 dog. The insides of sheep, well washed, and afterwards boiled 

 until quite tender, are not only a good substitute for horseflesh, 

 but better and more nutritious food than half the horses which 

 are used in the kennel. 



The huntsmen or feeders in large establishments having the 

 perquisite of the dog horses, i e., skin, bones, &c., are often 

 induced to take in horses unfit for food, and in greater numbers 

 than necessary. The skin of a horse is worth from six to eight 

 shillings, the bones from two shillings to half-a-crown, and the 

 hair something also. The huntsman of a scratch pack of 

 harriers once told me he kept his hounds for next to nothing. 

 Living in the neighbourhood of two large towns, in a coal dis- 

 trict, he could buy a dog horse for about ten shillings. The skin 

 he sold himself in the market, for which he obtained from 7s. to 

 8s., and the bones and hair made 2s. more, so that the flesh cost 

 him nothing, and upon this alone, during the greater part of 

 the year, his hounds subsisted. This was a very economical 

 way of keeping hounds, but my brother fox-hunters will hardly 

 agree that a pack of fox-hounds should be similarly managed. 

 Baw flesh, it is well known, will soon make a very poor hound fat, 

 but you Cfinnot work upon it in the hunting season. I have, 

 however, often given it to bad feeders and old hounds to 

 improve their condition, when not required to work. 



In the summer the feeding hour should be rather late, say 

 four or five o'clock ; hounds will then be more likely to remain 



