64 MR. warde's opinion on feeding. 



ought to do, particularly when recovering from the 

 ravages of the distemper. But with the old hounds 

 it does not so much signify, if the contents of the 

 meal-bin are fast diminishing, potatoes or ground oats 

 may be substituted for a short time ; and, with regard 

 to those bitches which may be at large suckling 

 whelps, neither they nor their young offspring should 

 be served with the feed in which nettles or other 

 vegetables have been mixed, as the worst consequences 

 will, in all probability, be the result, but a small 

 copper should be kept for their exclusive use during 

 the breeding season, where vegetables are used. 



It is quite impossible to feed in good workmanlike 

 style, or make the most of the meat, unless the ingre- 

 dients are good of their kind, well prepared, and pro- 

 perly mixed ; no department in the management of 

 the kennel was considered of greater importance than 

 the boiling and preparing the food, by that fine old 

 sportsman, Mr. J. Warde, whose experience, both in 

 feeding and breeding hounds, and whose opinion in 

 all matters relating to the chase, always have stood, 

 and ever will stand, as high in the estimation of all 

 fox-hunters as the oracle at Delphi did amongst the 

 Athenians. So convinced was he of the necessity of 

 having the meal well-boiled, that almost the first ques- 

 tion he asked a new whipper-in or kennel-man, who 

 might offer himself as a candidate for his service, was, 

 whetherlieknewhowto "thick acopper;"and, according 

 to the knowledge evinced in the culinary art of the boiling 

 house, his estimation of the person rose or fell. The feed- 

 ing hounds, to make the most of their powers and constitu- 

 tions, is another art, which, amongst the ordinary run of 



