CHAPTER X 



On Feeding Fox-hounds. — A Pate de Perigueux. — Some Remarks on 

 Love and Horseflesh. — Marriages in France during the Reign of 

 Terror. — Once a Huntsman always a Huntsman. — A Time for all 

 Things. — How the Hunting Man's Pleasure may profit his Neighbour. 

 — The Inevitable Hour. 



The saying is not an uncommon one, that " anything 

 is good enough for dogs." That is not the case, however, 

 with fox-hounds, which require the best of food to keep 

 them in condition during the hunting season. The best 

 old oatmeal, after a fair trial of all other farinaceous food, 

 has been found to be most productive of strength and 

 muscle to endure fatigue, with the addition of horse- 

 flesh ; and although the latter may sound rather disgus- 

 ting to ears polite, yet the flesh of a fat horse, without 

 disease, is quite as nutritious and fit for food, or more so 

 than that of many bullocks which are slaughtered for 

 the use of man. On this point, however, I cannot speak 

 from actual experience, although my feeder confessed to 

 having tasted a slice from the round of a young fresh 

 colt, which he pronounced to be as good, and sweeter 

 than a beef-steak. But as horses and bullocks feed 

 precisely alike (the chewing of the cud being excepted 

 in the former), there is no vaUd reason why the flesh 

 should not be equally wholesome. 



Crabs and lobsters, the scavengers of the sea, are 

 considered great delicacies, notwithstanding they subsist 

 upon all kinds of impurities ; and although it is not 

 necessary to extend our researches too far, we should 



III 



