48 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



that these poor hounds had lain cooped up in their 

 kennel from March till the end of August, and then, 

 without any previous exercise or trot on the roads, or 

 rule as to the quantity of fat they carried, and not 

 having had any meat, they were taken out into the 

 severest and best-scenting woods imaginable, and put 

 to hunt cub wolves, in a climate warmer than that of 

 England and on a very hot day ? Well might they 

 tire and lie down ; well might they look ill from low 

 fever induced by such unwonted exertion ; all I won- 

 der at is, that they contrived to hunt a brace of cub 

 wolves to their death, and that Mr. Assheton Smith's 

 old Blossom had capabilities sufficient in her to over- 

 take and get punished by the old vixen wolf. I 

 wonder that these hounds did not all fall oflp in fits, 

 die at once, or go mad ; and I ceased to marvel so 

 much at the complicated nature of the diseases by 

 which they were more or less oppressed. 



The seventeen hounds that were there collected 

 consisted of about five or six French hounds, some 

 rough and some smooth, and one was a little harrier ; 

 to these were added my great able-bodied blood- 

 hound Saxon, who stood nearly 25 inches high, and 

 several full-sized foxhounds, old and young, one of 

 them a clever dog hound called " Windsor," from 

 her Majesty's kennel at Ascot Heath, but who was 



