KENNELS AND STABLES 203 



grounds for the young entry, and the hunt-servants and 

 feeders have a bit of garden ground attached to their 

 cottages. There is ample and excellent storage for meal 

 and coal, so that the Master, if so inclined, can take advan- 

 tage of lov^ prices. The average establishment has always 

 been forty couple, say thirty-five couple of w^orking hounds. 

 It sounds a good many for two days a week, but the Queen's 

 Hounds are never vanned, and the flints on the Buckingham- 

 shire side and the five-and-twenty miles journey home, which 

 is a constant experience, must be taken into account. 



Harvey instituted a capital practice, although I do not 

 know whether it has been continued. The hunting pack 

 after being fed were always turned into a big loose box 

 filled seven or eight feet high with wheat straw, and he did 

 not disturb them till well on in the next morning. 



There is no difficulty about getting walks, and in my 

 time we entered six or seven couple out of the five-and-twenty 

 walked in the district ; but it is not a country for good 

 walks, as there is not enough grass land or milk, and too 

 much residential amenity. The two plans of the kennels are 

 not quite up to date, but they give a good general idea of the 

 premises and distribution. But enough of technicalities. 

 When the thorns and daisies are out, and the whelps about, 

 and the sun is shining, no pleasanter place than the kennel 

 green can be imagined. 



In 1875 the Queen honoured the kennels by a visit. 



' And now,' Goodall notes in his journal on the 23rd of 

 March, ' a red-letter day. Her Majesty went all over the 

 kennels, taking great interest in the hounds and in every 

 detail.' This was indeed an honour. Not even the fact he 

 records of being very ' unpresentable ' from a black eye and 

 contused face, due to his fall with ' Rosslyn ' off the wooden 

 bridge, could diminish Goodall's pride and pleasure. 



But Chance, the most sensible and companionable of 



