HYDROPHOBIA 123 



been a mad dog through the Vale of Berkeley, which had bitten 

 several things ; and among the animals he was seen to assault 

 was a foxhound puppy sent to me, but whose name at this 

 moment I forget. This puppy he had run at and knocked over, 

 but though he had run against him, on the closest examination 

 no bite could be found, and not an erasure of the skin nor any- 

 thing like it. The puppy was a promising one, and with this 

 caution I received him. Orders wei'e given by me to my men to 

 watch the young hound well, and to report at once if they saw 

 the slightest change in health or disposition. I not only always 

 fed my hounds myself, but it was my custom every day to play 

 with the young hounds and make them handy to their names, to 

 kennel usage, and to couples. In fact, teaching them to dis- 

 tinguish a look of approbation and a word of praise from a 

 frown or a gruff chide in anger : with a long kennel gown on, 

 reaching from my chin to my foot, they were welcome to leap 

 up and pull me about as much as they pleased ; in this familiar 

 way it was astonishing the ascendency, without a blow, that I 

 soon obtained over them. I was sitting on their bedstead, 

 caressing those that sought me, and watching othei's in their 

 graceful play, my eye always open to the caution as to the mad 

 dog ; when before I had been in the kennel five minutes I per- 

 ceived that the puppy, as to whom I had received the letter, 

 refused to play with any of the others, and without seeming to 

 have anything the matter with him looked bored (that is the best 

 description I can give of it) with his fellows when they invited 

 him to a i-omp. That instant I put a pair of couples round his 

 neck, and placed him apart from all the rest, giving him at the 

 same time a gentle dose of physic in case the apparent dulness or 

 drooping was occasioned by passing indisposition. Several times 

 during that day I visited him, and towards the evening the 

 hound became decidedly dull and out of all spirits, but without 

 showing any other symptom of distress ; this might have been 

 occasioned by the physic, but still I had other apprehensions. 

 On the following morning the hound was gloomy, dejected, and 

 had a heavy look about the eyes ; he knew me and wagged his 



