26 THE QUORN HUNT 



the principal part. The litter-houses comprise numerous berths 

 for the mothers, where the puppies are kept until they are ad- 

 mitted into the junior college. In this building are lodged the 

 young dogs from eight to twelve months old. The play-ground 

 is a large court in front, neatly flagged and always clean. A 

 similar one is on the western side for the older dogs. Nothing 

 can surpass the regularity and orderly behaviour of these intelli- 

 gent creatures at the dinner-hour; on the ringing of the bell, the 

 dogs in the courtyard wait patiently until they are called by fours, 

 when Ponto, Jowler, Music, and Trinket leave the crowd and go 

 to their stated troughs. Other parties follow, dine, retire, and 

 make way for the remaining sets. The kennelman cracked a 

 long whip two or three times before he introduced the colonel 

 and myself into the junior court. On entering I was surrounded 

 by a score of playful whelps, who all pressed forward to be 

 caressed. We then passed into the court of the grown-up 

 gentry, and I followed with very different feelings. These 

 gaunt fellows came round me with a more savage look, smelling 

 my person in such numbers that I scarcely could proceed. 

 The huntsman, seeing me somewhat alarmed, called out to two 

 or three of the dogs to make way, and said, " Come on, sir, 

 don't be afraid." I was glad when I was by the side of him and 

 his long whip, but should not have been so easy had I known 

 that a kennelman, who had got up in the night to appease a 

 quarrel and had not taken the precaution to put on his clothes, 

 had been devoured by the dogs in consequence of not being 

 recognised by them. They picked his bones. 



How many versions there are of this story, and of 

 how many kennels it is told, it would be difficult to say : 

 but the moral perhaps is that the incident never occurred 

 at all — at any rate let us hope so. 



No new kennels have been built since Lord Suffield's 

 time. The Marquis of Hastings, it is true, kept some 

 of his hounds at Donington during his short reign 

 (1866-68) ; but with that exception, and save for sundry 

 alterations and repairs, the Ouorn kennels stand very 

 much as Mr. Meynell left them. The lodging-rooms 

 have cupola roofs covered with the old Swithland slate, 

 which is now almost unobtainable. 



