148 MR. meynell's hounds. 



drawn by about four or five couples of hounds, the 

 body of the pack being kept in reserve at some dis- 

 tance, and must confess, that although the motive 

 was excellent, viz., that the fox should have every 

 advantage in making his point aw^ay without being 

 overpowered by numbers and chopped, it took away 

 in no little degree from the true spirit of the thing. 

 Colonel Cook mentions, in his " Observations on 

 Hunting," the circumstance of Mr. Meynell's hounds 

 waiting in the same field, while a few couples selected 

 from the pack were running hard in an adjoining 

 gorse, nor did they attempt to break from the whip- 

 per-in until cheered to the cry by Jack Raven. In 

 some hunting countries, where earths are scarce, and 

 it is found necessary to establish an artificial one, for 

 the sake of rearing young cubs, which may have been 

 put down, the best method of making one is by 

 digging a deep trench on the sunny side of some 

 rising ground, inside the cover which is intended to 

 be stocked, if possible ; when you have dug the first 

 trench, which ought to be about four feet deep, 

 and about of the same width, being in a semi-cir- 

 cular form, with two entrances, and from the 

 centre turning oif into an oven or den, lay a drain 

 of very small soughing tiles, placed upon flat ones, 

 to prevent rabbits from working under them ; by 

 this means, the artificial earth will be kept perfectly 

 dry after severe soaking rains ; having formed the 

 large trench, in which the earth is to be made, lay 

 the bottom with large flat stones, wMch may be 

 generally procured from the rubbish of stone quarries 

 at a low price, taking care to build, in the afore-men- 



