248 THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOUNDS. 



CHAPTER XVIL 



KENNELS AND STABLES. 



The kennels at Trentham, as the plan and the photograph 

 will show, are as good and complete as any in the country, 

 although they may be said to owe their existence to some- 

 thing very like an accident or a misunderstanding. It 

 seems that some time in the forties, in the day of the 

 second Duke, who was a quiet scholarly man, with no 

 sporting tastes of any kind, he was spoken to by his eldest 

 son (then Marquis of Stafford, afterwards the third Duke), 

 on the eve of the father's going abroad for some months, 

 with a view to obtaining permission to enlarge the modest 

 kennels which then housed a few spaniels and sporting 

 dogs belonging to the Marquis ; leave was given without 

 much consideration on the Duke's part, and without going 

 into detail as to plans and cost, and as Sir Charles Barry 

 was then at Trentham, engaged on elaborate alterations 

 and additions to the house, Lord Stafford made the most 

 of his golden opportunity, and on the Duke's return, some 

 months afterwards, to his surprise and chagrin, he found 

 that the extensive and elaborate kennels which now so 

 well house the North Stafford pack of hounds, had been 

 erected in his absence, regardless of expense. So well had 

 the work been done, and so thoroughly, that when, in 

 1862, the hounds were moved from Wolstanton to 

 Trentham, it w^as found that very little need be added 

 in order to provide for the accommodation of some fifty 

 or sixty couple of hounds. It is quite impossible to ex- 

 aggerate the importance to the Hunt of this generous 



