SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 37 



to ten months old ; and if neglected during that 

 period, or irregularly fed overcrammed at one 

 time and starved at another their master's care 

 and trouble will have been expended to little 

 purpose. 



Where whelps are sent out to very distant 

 walks, some forty or fifty miles from kennel, where 

 they are far removed from the supervision of master 

 and man, it is no uncommon thing for them to 

 meet with rough usage and coarser fare during the 

 chief part of their sojourn J/here ; but as the time 

 approaches for their return, they are then fatted up 

 for the occasion, to make a fair show in the kennel ; 

 and this is a trick of which tenants at a distance 

 are too often guilty. Perhaps we ought not to lay 

 this charge exactly to themselves, but their better 

 halves and, in truth, at farm-houses generally, 

 "the grey mare is the better horse/' The master 

 is obliged to be in the field, from sunrise to sunset, 

 either superintending labourers, or himself working 

 according to his status, whilst the missus is engaged 

 in her household duties making butter or cheese, 

 feeding young ducks and chickens, &c.; and a mis- 

 chievous foxhound puppy is more likely to interfere 

 than assist her in these occupations. He will very 

 probably be running off with a cheese-cloth or pafc 

 of butter, or running down a screaming young 

 cockerel in the yard, for which and sundry other 

 malpractices, in which puppy dogs are wont to 

 indulge, he is almost sure to incur the dire dis- 

 pleasure of the missus unless she is endowed with 

 an angelic temper arid receive as his reward 



