WASHING THE LODGING ROOMS, 141 



Fox-hounds have done very well without the luxury 

 of a warm bath for many years ] and in this age 

 of indolence, when every substitute is used to 

 lessen labour of every description, it is not likely 

 to find much favour with kennel officials. There 

 are other matters of more importance to be 

 attended to, which are often carelessly passed 

 over and left to the feeder, but unquestionably 

 belong to the huntsman's department ; and one 

 of these is, allowing the hounds to stand shiver- 

 ing on a cold or wet wintry morning in the yards 

 while the lodging-rooms are being washed down. 



Although I do not consider any range of kennels 

 complete for fox-hounds without sufficient lodg- 

 ing-rooms to admit of every division of the pack 

 having a dry floor to enter upon every morning, 

 over which no water has passed since the previous 

 day, yet, as the great majority of kennels are thus 

 incomplete, and the hounds occupy day after day 

 the same benches, with no change of floors, these, 

 of course, require the use of the bucket and 

 besom every morning, to cleanse them from their 

 impurities ; and it is the huntsman's business to 

 walk the hounds about, in paddock, field, or any- 

 w^here else, whilst the lodging-room doors are 

 thrown open, and the floor washed and mopped dry 

 before their return to them again. 



