FEEDING HOUNDS. [(57 



and long abstinence attending on field sports must 

 know that he could relish a glass of sherry and a 

 biscuit when he could not at once sit down to 

 discuss a good dinner; and I rather suspect a 

 glass of hot brandy and water would be more 

 grateful to him, when wet to the skin, and his 

 teeth chattering with cold, on a January evening, 

 than a jug of iced buttermilk. 



It is a rule worth observing, to feed horses and 

 dogs according to their work, but never to over- 

 load their stomachs at any one meal, and especially 

 not with fluids ; and on one point I am thoroughly 

 convinced, that the same quantity of food divided 

 into two feedings, morning and evening, will keep 

 dogs in a better and more healthy condition than 

 when given at once, which is the general custom 

 in kennels of fox-hounds. This was, at any rate, 

 the invariable custom with my own hounds, winter 

 and summer, throughout the year ; and the effect 

 of this treatment was manifest in their superior 

 powers of enduring fatigue, and living to a greater 

 age, with less diminished strength, than those in 

 other establishments; and the last fox-hound I 

 ever possessed, which, being a great favourite, was 

 reserved and sent to a neighbour, ran at the head 

 of his fast pack when in her eighth season. A 

 httle consideration of our own particular feelings 



