48 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Treatment of Whelps. 



withstanding that, as they will be constantly well fed, 

 and will lie warm, I am confident it would be the saving 

 of many lives. If you should adopt this method, you 

 must remember to use them early to go in couples ; and 

 when they get of a proper age, they must be walked out 

 often ; for should they remain confined, they would 

 neither have the shape, health, nor understanding they 

 ought to have. When I kept harriers, I bred up some 

 of the puppies at a distant kennel ; but having no ser- 

 vants there to exercise them properly, I found them much 

 inferior to such of their brethren, as had the luck to 

 survive the many difficulties and dangers they had 

 undergone at their walks ; these were afterwards equal 

 to anythhig, and afraid of nothing ; while those that had 

 been nursed with so much care, were weakly, and timid, 

 and had every disadvantage attending private education. 

 *' I have often heard as an excuse for hounds not hunt- 

 ing a cold scent, that they were too high bred. 



I confess, I know not what that means :* but this I know, 

 that hounds are frequently too ill-bred to be of any service. 

 It is judgment in the breeder, and patience afterwards 

 in the huntsman, that make them hunt. 



* The term " toe high bred " is, however, in general use among Sports- 

 men, by whom it is very well understood, and is, beyond all question, suffi- 

 ciently expressive. It is applied to light, fleet hounds, with small heads, 

 (and consequently very inferior noses) which are only able to pursue under 

 the most favourable circumstances, er when the scent is breast high. Sir 

 Harry Mainwaring's, Mr. Osbaldeston's, and the Duke of Rutland's are 

 all as highly bred perhaps as is consistent with the nature of the business ; 

 they can, however, both hunt and run; but of all fox-hounds which have 

 fallen under my observation, those of Mr. Mcynell, of Hoarecross Hall, 

 Staflbrdshirc, appealed the highest bred, and were, in my opinion, rather 

 too highbj bred. 



