A MASTER OF OTTERHOUNDS 249 



like it warm as well as their masters, and they have 

 worked as hard for it, and sometimes, indeed, harder. 

 In the off-season a hundredweight bag should, well 

 soaked and given sloppy, make nearly three feeds. 



The remaining expenses are the cost of kennels, a 

 variable quantity that can hardly be specified here, and 

 the wages of Hunt servants. Beyond these there are 

 only the slight expenses attending illness, and as most 

 veterinary surgeons are kind enough to act as hon. vets, 

 to the pack, these are confined to a yearly chemist's 

 bill of, say, £10. The courts must be kept well washed 

 with disinfectant, and this should also be liberally used 

 in flushing the drains. Jeyes' Fluid, or some such 

 compound, answers the purpose. Hounds should be 

 brushed every day with an ordinary dandy-brush and 

 gloved with one of Dinneford's hound gloves or with a 

 chamois leather. Another requirement for kennels will 

 be three or four tons of wheaten straw at from £2 to 

 £/\ per ton, according to season and locality. Coming 

 to the question of servants and their wages, one man in 

 kennel, who will also whip-in to you in the field, is all 

 that is strictly necessary, but a kennel-boy is a useful 

 addition to the staff. For whip, the very best man is 

 one who has been brought up with hounds (in a 

 foxhound kennel for preference, where things are done 

 well) as feeder or kennel-man. He must be fond of 

 his job, or he will be useless. Also, he must be sober, 

 active, and strong. One of the greatest troubles in the 

 life of Masters of Otterhounds is the manner in which 

 the field will ply the Hunt servants with liquor. If 

 they are not very strong-minded, and do not know 



