CHAPTER IX 



Use of the Warm Bath for Hounds. — The Daily Constitutional. — 

 Smooth Coats and Rough Coats. — Qualities essential to a Good 

 Huntsman. — When the Horn should be used. — Beckford on Hunts- 

 men and Whippers-in. — Order of Precedence in going to Covert. — 

 Kennel Management. — Pen-and-ink Portraits. — Deer-hunting 

 Extraordinary. 



No animal is more susceptible of cold, or more liable to 

 rheumatic attacks, than the dog ; and although I never 

 had recourse to artificial heat from flues in the kennel, 

 the use of them, in moderation, cannot, I think, fail to 

 be beneficial in very cold weather, particularly if the 

 lodging rooms are damp ; but after a fair trial of the warm 

 bath recommended by Mr. Delme Radcliffe, and adopted 

 by many masters of fox-hounds a few years since, its 

 use was discontinued from a conviction of the impractic- 

 ability of carrying the process out to a beneficial effect 

 A warm bath, with thorough dry rubbing afterwards, 

 is one of the greatest restoratives to a man after a severe 

 day's work ; and so, no doubt, it would prove to hounds 

 also, provided the dogs' coat could be rubbed thoroughly 

 dry immediately, without exposure to cold draughts ; but 

 it would take half the night to accomplish this object 

 as it ought to be done, with sixteen or eighteen couples, 

 by the exertion of huntsman and feeder, unless several 

 extra hands were employed for the purpose. 



The plan generally adopted in regard to the warm 

 bath was to plunge the hounds into a large wooden trough, 

 filled with warm pot liquor from the boiler, immediately 



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