FOX-HUNTING IN VIRGINIA. 531 



hounds are too large for the country we hunt. It is beyond 

 doubt true that medium-sized hounds are best for our work. 

 They should not be above fifty pounds in weight. Some 

 years ago, I knew an imported pack which I think would 

 have averaged eighty pounds, and they could not stay with 

 a native pack of small hounds of only moderate excellence. 



The kennel discipline of hounds should be simple, and 

 all the accommodations inexpensive. When not in the 

 kennel, they ought to be coupled together, in pairs, by an 

 iron rod about a foot long, with a ring in each end, through 

 which passes a leather collar to be buckled around the neck. 

 My father's kennel was simply a big, square-built log house, 

 with' a dirt floor, on which clean bedding was kept. During 

 the hunting-season, the dogs were kept altogether in this 

 house. Oat of season, they were coupled, and went in and 

 out at pleasure. They were called to be fed with the horn, 

 and always worked with the same horn for everything they 

 were required to do. They were fed, inexpensively, on 

 coarse corn-meal, with the husks left in, and baked in large 

 pones. They also had scraps from the tables, and sour 

 milk, buttermilk, and bonny-clabber from the dairy. A 

 case of disease or sickness among them is a thing which, 

 during thirty years, I can scarcely remember. 



Probably an average of twenty were kept; sometimes the 

 number ran up to thirty; sometimes there were not more 

 than thirteen in the kennel. The entire success of these 

 simple kennel arrangements, during so many years, seems 

 to entitle such a method to great confidence. My father, 

 who was doubtless the most enthusiastic and successful 

 Fox-hunter of his time, in Virginia, pursued, also, in break- 

 ing his young hounds, a method perfectly simple. When- 

 ever he went- out on horseback, which was well-nigh 

 every day of his life, up to within a week of his death, he 

 took the young hounds with him, and so accustomed them 

 to obedience and a love of companionship with himself; 

 and when they were to be taught to run the Red Fox, he 

 took them out with a few of the best Fox-hounds he had, 

 and let them run. They soon learned all there is for a 



