94 DRESSING HOUNDS 



straw only thrown on the benches, which, in consequence 

 of this neglect, become a hotbed for the production of 

 these vermin. Whitewashing the walls with hot lime is 

 also another preventive, which requiries to be done twice, 

 if not three times, in the year, — spring, summer, and 

 autumn, — and with these apphcations and precautions, 

 hounds ought to be as free from fleas and ticks as a lady's 

 lap-dog. 



To dressing hounds periodically with those noxious 

 compounds used by many huntsmen, I have ever mani- 

 fested the greatest antipathy and aversion ; and having 

 entirely failed to elicit from some of the cleverest men 

 of this class one single tenable argument in favour of 

 this practice, I am constrained to draw conclusions from 

 their perseverance in a course so obsolete and indefensible 

 anything but complimentary to men who in other respects 

 (field practice, forsooth) are gifted with a large share of 

 intellect, and who, in making a scientific cast in one 

 direction, whilst the fox is gone in another, can give a 

 very plausible, if not satisfactory, explanation why the 

 fox ought to have made his point to such a covert, 

 although the fox took a very different line and view of 

 the case ; but if he was a fool, the huntsman of course 

 could not help it. The fox would naturally submit in 

 his defence, as an argumentum ad hominem, which was 

 the biggest fool of the two, biped or quadruped, Q.E.D. ? 

 But to recover my line, which is seldom a straight one, 

 nostrums, mixums, and quackeries are abominations to 

 my ears, eyes, and nose ; and when out of all the fiery 

 compounds of these highly-lauded dressings, the only 

 ingredient I could ever detect as being at all apphcable 

 to the case in point, i.e. cutaneous eruptions, itch, or 

 mange, was sulphur ; the others could, of course, be 



