KENNEL MANAGEMENT. 345 



come in, look them attentively over ; divide the 

 well-walked whelps from those that have been ill- 

 walked ; bleed and scour well out the fat lot, pav- 

 ing of course attention to their diet, cleanliness, 

 and exercise ; and cherish the poor lot by the best 

 food, giving them the castor oil without the calo- 

 mel or the lancet. But a lot of well-bred fox-hound 

 whelps are not to be left to the care of a whipper-in 

 or a boiler, unless he is a perfectly sober, attentive, 

 experienced man ; for in this disease in the animal, 

 as in the human species, the patient must be most 

 attentively and closely watched." 



Kennel Management. — The management of 

 hounds in kennel has undergone great changes for 

 the better since Mr. Beckford's day ; and, divest- 

 ing the mind of the inferiority of horse-flesh over 

 cow or bullock-flesh, the food of hounds, both in its 

 nature and the cooking of it, is such as man might 

 not only not reject, if necessity compelled him to 

 have recourse to it, but such as he would thrive 

 and do well upon. It is a common expression, 

 that " any thing will do for dogs," and experience 

 informs us they will exist upon very miserable 

 fare ; but hounds, to he in condition^ must have 

 every thing good of its kind, and also well cooked. 

 Were a master of hounds, or huntsman, of the 

 present day, to follow Beckford's advice, of putting 

 his hounds to a horse fresh killed, after a hard 

 day, his brother sportsmen would think him mad ; 

 nor is there scarcely any thing now used in our 

 first-rate kennels but the best oat-meal (Scotch or 



