64 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



CHAP. III. 

 ON FEEDING. 



" The beast obeys bis keeper, and looks up, 

 Not to his master's, but his fci;der's hi\nd." 



Deniiam. 



CONTENTS. 



Different kinds of Food lor Hounds — Notice of a book entitled " The Gentleman's 

 Recreation" — Old oatmeal the best — Method of mixing the meat — Sir Harry 

 Goodricke's large stock of meal at Thrussington kennels — Meal mixed with 

 Indian corn bad — Adulterating meal with sand — Mr. Cross's opinion of bad 

 flesh — Feeding high and plenty of exercise — Too much of the boiled flesh un- 

 wholesom.e — Biscuits — Vegetables excellent in summer — Boilers should be made 

 of iron, and not copper — Method of feeding the pack — Shy feeders — Mr. 

 Warde's value of a good feeder — Feeding the pack to "go together" — A 

 huntsman ought to feed his own hounds — The Duke of Cleveland's reasons for 

 giving up hunting— Mr. Osbaldeston's hounds, and Will Gardner his feeder — 

 How to feed " to go the pace" and kill foxes — Delicate feeders — Giving hounds 

 " reddle" during the summer months — Early feeding the best, and never feed to 

 satiety. 



Much has been said by various theoretical authors upou feeding hounds 

 upon diiFerent kinds of food, each recommending his own peculiar plan 

 as the best ; the proof positive, however, derived from one's own expe- 

 rience will bear out every argument upon the subject. In former days 

 hounds Avcre fed chiefly, if not entirel}^ upon raw flesh ; but times have 

 altered, and improvements in kennel economy, as well as in most other 

 departments, have been introduced. In my early days I have repeatedly 

 seen harriers fed by calling them into six or seven large joints of flesh, 

 instead of to the trough ; and the wavm entrails of a fresh-killed horse 

 were considered a grand restorative to tired hounds after a long day's 

 hunting. In an old book entitled " The Gentleman's Recreation," the 

 author, in the old-fashioned and quaint language of the seventeenth 

 century, in recommending flesh as good food for hounds, says that 

 horse-flesh is the best and hottest ; but strictly cautions any one from 

 giving it with the skin on, " lest your dogs, discerning the hair, may 

 fall on them when alive in the field." In the " New Sporting Maga- 

 zine," some few years since, a writer under the signature of Dashwood 

 recommended the use of mangel-wurzcL Such food might do extremely 



