25Q HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



with a good education, activity, and intelligence, should be con- 

 sidered inferior to a servant "l 



The specimens we have had of gentlemen huntsmen, though 

 not very numerous, are sufficient to prove the assertion of Mr. 

 Delme Radclilfe, who thus writes : — " I will maintain that in 

 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred — I might safely say in every 

 case — where not only mental, hut an exertion of physical power 

 is required, that blood ivill tell." I might name several gentle- 

 men huntsmen in the provinces, but will select two only, from 

 the grand country of the Meltonians — Osbaldestone and Assheton 

 Smith — the latter still continuing up to the present time to 

 show capital sport almost every season, without intermission, 

 in, I was going to say, one of the worst hunting countries in 

 England, and I do not know that I am far from the mark. He 

 has, it is true, a pretty skurry every now and then over the 

 downs, and a few grass fields to cross in the valleys occasion- 

 ally. These are, however, few and far between, but the tittle 

 spinnei/s he has to draw, such as the West Woods, Southgrove, 

 Collingbourne Woods, Doles, and Fackham, would any one of 

 them be sufficient to scare away his most attached friend from 

 the grazing districts. 



It is not indispensable that a gentleman should always feed his 

 hounds, any more than a shooter should feed his pointers, or a 

 courser his greyhounds. Dogs soon distingiiish who is their 

 master, and if he is kind to them, and can kill foxes for them, 

 he need not give himself any concern about their good will to 

 serve him or attachment to his person. Mr. Smith, I believe, 

 seldom feeds his hounds ; but any one who could witness his 

 reception among them at the covert side would not be long in 

 doubt as to the feelings they entertain towards their master. 

 Lord Darlington and the great Mr. Meynell generally fed, or 

 saw their hounds have their dinners, before sitting down to 

 their own on hunting days; and, I must confess, I did not 

 think I could do better than follow such good examples. The 

 time occupied in feeding from eighteen to twenty couples of 

 hounds, when their food was ready, which was generally the 

 case before I dismounted from my horse at the kennel door, did 

 not occupy more than from ten to fifteen minutes. After feed- 

 ing the hounds left at home in kennel, the feeder prepared for 

 the hunting hounds. The meal and meat were mixed together 

 ready in the troughs, and at the first blast of the horn the broth 

 was added hot from the boiling house ; so that we were never 

 kept waiting more than two or three minutes at any time. 

 From long practice, and thorough knowledge of the hounds, I 

 could feed twenty couples as easily as I could five at a time. 



