HORSES AND HOUNDS. 295 



no mischief resulted but the loss of his services in the field for 

 a few weeks. The time occupied in hunting this fox, running 

 being out of the question, was three hours and a half, through 

 a woodland country, with two disagreeable brooks to cross 

 twice, and but for his waiting for us two or three times we 

 should scarcely have overhauled him at last ; a straight running 

 fox of the greyhound sort would have run us out of scent alto- 

 getlier in about forty minutes. 



Every huntsman should take with him into the field a list of 

 his pack for that day's hunting. This list should be entered 

 also in a diar>^ of each day's sport, with remarks about the 

 hounds' work ; it will be good authority to refer to at the end 

 of the season, before the draft is made, and show the hounds 

 which have done the most during the season, and have hunted 

 the gTeatest number of days. A book of this description was 

 always kept by me, in which these entries were made, and also 

 remarks about the weather, the coverts which were dra^^Ti, the 

 earths which were stopped, and the number of foxes found. 

 This I found of great sers'ice at the end of the season, as it 

 enabled me to see at once what was due to each earth-stopper, 

 and who were entitled to any extra reward. 



It is the custom in some kennels to plunge the hounds into a 

 warm bath after hunting, and to shut them up together when 

 washed for a short time before they are fed. There are few who 

 do not admit the efiicacy of hot water, or who have not expe- 

 rienced the soothing effects of a warm bath after severe labour. 

 To the human frame, with a good dry rubbing afterwards, 

 nothing can be more refreshing, but ^^dthout this dry rubbing 

 we all know half the efficacy would be lost. By a sudden chill 

 or cold blast the pores of the skin, thus opened by the appli- 

 cation of the warm water, would be suddenly checked, and 

 more harm than good would be the result of it ; rubbing keeps 

 up the action of the skin, and superinduces that glow over the 

 whole frame which is so luxurious. Having tried the experi- 

 ment with my own hounds for one entire season without any 

 satisfactory result, I abandoned it._ The warm bath is all very 

 well, but the difficulty lies in having the hounds rubbed tho- 

 roughly dry afterwards, which requires much more labour and 

 time than many suppose. 



To liave the tiling done thoroughly well, I attended the 

 operation myself, with three assistants, but it occupied more 

 than an hour to bathe and rub tolerably dry about eighteen 

 couples of hounds, and then they were not in my opinion half 

 dry. It is true, they assisted each other in this respect, but I 

 never could see yet any good result from one hound licking off the 



