CHAPTER XII 



The Sportsman's Library. — A practical Lesson on the Evils of Idleness 

 — Salutary discipline for Riotous Dogs. — The Author's Apology 

 for being Dogmatical on Dogs. — When Whelps should be turned out 

 of the Nursery. — The Mysteries of Barley Meal. — Cure for the Red 

 Mange; 



Every sportsman ought to have in his library Lawrence 

 and Nimrod on Horses, with Beckf ord and Delme Radchffe 

 on Hounds. He will of course patronise the Sporting 

 Review and Bailey's Magazine also, from whose pages 

 he may derive both information and instruction. 



It will, I dare say, appear very strange in this en- 

 lightened age, when so much has been written on the 

 management of hounds, and with a class of huntsmen 

 supposed to know everything about kennel and field 

 practice, that ignorance and obstinacy should still prevail 

 to an alarming extent in some establishments, proving, 

 as I have said, the necessity of the Master knowing his 

 business as well or better than his man. I have been 

 told that in one kennel last summer no fewer than fourteen 

 hounds were worried and torn to pieces by fighting among 

 themselves. But there is little cause for astonishment 

 at such a loss, when it appears that these hounds, after the 

 season is over, are allowed to remain for weeks together 

 without proper and sufficient exercise. They are merely 

 walked out for half an hour or so in the morning, and 

 again after feeding in the afternoon. The pack was 

 represented to be extremely riotous and unsteady, 

 flashing away from their own game when in full chase, 



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