BATHING. 295 



about on the coursing ground for the purpose of making the 

 puppy handy, when, if the weather is very cold, it is better 

 to put a cloth on. 



During the summer months I have found that the practice 

 of swimming the dog through a river or the sea is highly con- 

 ducive to health, and may be adopted every day ; the dogs 

 always play freely after it, and in the warm weather they hardly 

 do so sufficiently without it. It also braces them, and I think 

 renders them much less likely to catch cold in the severe ex- 

 posures to which they are subject at the public meetings in the 

 following winter. 



There is a great difference in the various breeds as to the 

 fondness for water, some disliking it to such an extent as to 

 refuse to follow their master through a small river if obliged 

 to swim whilst others will go in and swim about like a water 

 spaniel ; and even in the severe weather of a cold winter cannot 

 be kept from galloping in any shallow water which may come 

 in their way in the meadows in which they are exercised. 



In one of the letters of ' Scrutator' on hunting, that 

 gentleman writes strongly against allowing hounds to swim, and 

 I have no doubt that he is quite correct, because, of course, a 

 pack of fox hounds will not, and cannot, be allowed to play 

 about, as greyhounds should be encouraged to do. The conse- 

 quences, therefore, of getting wet, would be bad, since the 

 hounds would merely walk or lie about and get chilled, which 

 would be the sure forerunner of rheumatism, either in the form 

 of kennel lameness or chest-founder ; whereas, with greyhounds, 



