LETTER II

Since you intend to make hunting your chief amusement in the country, you are certainly in the right to give it some consideration before you begin; and not, like Master Stephen in the play, first buy a hawk, and then hunt after a book to keep it by. I am glad to find that you intend to build a new kennel; and, I flatter myself, the experience that I have had may be of some use to you in building it: it is not only the first thing that you should do, but it is also the most important. As often as your mind may alter, so often may you easily change from one kind of hound to another; but your kennel will still remain the same; will still keep its original imperfections, unless altered at a great expense; and be less perfect at last than it might have been made at first, had you pursued a proper plan. It is true, hounds may be kept in barns and stables: but those who keep them in such places can best inform you, whether their hounds are capable of answering the purposes for which they were designed. The sense of smelling, the odora canum vis, as Virgil calls it, is so exquisite in a hound, that I cannot but suppose every stench is hurtful to it. It is that faculty on which all our hopes depend; it is that which must lead us over greasy fallows, where the feet of the game we pursue, being clogged, leave little scent behind; as well as over stony roads, through watery meads, and where sheep have stained the ground.

Cleanliness is not only absolutely necessary to the nose of the hound, but also to the preservation of his health. Dogs are naturally cleanly animals; they seldom, when they can help it, dung where they lie: air, and fresh straw, are necessary to keep them healthy. They are subject to the mange; a disorder to which poverty and nastiness will very much contribute. This, though easily stopped at its first appearance, if suffered to continue long, may lessen the powers of the animal; and the remedies which are then to be used, being in themselves violent, must injure his constitution. It had better be prevented: let the kennel therefore, be an object of your particular care.

Let such as Somerville directs be the situation: its size must be suited to the number of its inhabitants: the architecture of it may be conformable to your own taste. Useless expense I should not recommend; yet, as I suppose you will often make it a visit, at least in the hunting season, I could wish it might have neatness without, as well as cleanliness within, the more to allure you to it. I should, for the same reason, wish it to be as near to your house as you will give it leave. I know there are many objections to its being very near: I foresee still more to it being at a distance. There is a vulgar saying, that it is the master’s eye that makes the horse fat: I can assure you, that it is even more necessary in the kennel, where cleanliness is not less essential than food.

There are, I make no doubt, many better kennels than mine; some of which you should see before you begin to build. You can but make use of my plan, in case that you like no other better. If, in the meantime, I am to give you my opinion what a kennel ought to be, I must send you a description of my own, for I have not seen many others.

I would advise you to make it large enough at first, as any addition afterwards must spoil the appearance of it. I have been obliged to add to mine, which was built from a plan of my own, and intended, at first, for a pack of beagles. My feeding-yard being too small, I will endeavour to remedy that defect in the plan I send you, which plan may be still enlarged, or lessened, as you think fit, or as your occasions may require. The feeding-troughs should be wide at the bottom, and must have wooden covers.

I think two kennels absolutely necessary to the wellbeing of the hounds: when there is but one, it is seldom sweet; and, when cleaned out, the hounds, particularly in winter, suffer both whilst it is cleaning, and as long as it remains wet afterwards. To be more clearly understood by you, I shall call one of these the hunting-kennel, by which I mean that kennel into which the hounds intended to hunt the next day, are drafted. Used always to the same kennel, they will be drafted with little trouble; they will answer to their names more readily, and you may count your hounds into the kennel with as much ease as a shepherd counts his sheep out of the fold.

When the feeder first comes to the kennel in a morning, he should let out the hounds into the outer court; and in bad weather he should open the door of the hunting-kennel, lest want of rest should incline them to go into it. The lodging-room should then be cleaned out, the doors and windows of it opened, the litter shaken up, and the kennel made sweet and clean, before the hounds return to it again. The great court and the other kennels, are not less to be attended to, nor should you pass over in silence any omission that is hurtful to your hounds.

The floor of each lodging-room should be bricked, and sloped on both sides to run to the centre, with a gutter left to carry off the water, that when they are washed, they may be soon dry. If water should remain, through any fault in the floor, it should be carefully mopped up; for as warmth is in the greatest degree necessary to hounds after work, so damps are equally prejudicial. You will think me, perhaps, too particular in these directions; yet there can be no harm in your knowing what your servants ought to do; as it is not impossible but it may be sometimes necessary for you to see that it is done. In your military profession, you are perfectly acquainted with the duty of a common soldier; and though you have no farther business with the minutiæ of it, without doubt you still find the knowledge of them useful to you. Believe me, they may be useful here; and you will pardon me, I hope, if I wish to see you a Martinet in the kennel, as well as in the field. Orders given without skill are seldom well obeyed; and where the master is either ignorant or inattentive, the servant will be idle.

I also wish, that, contrary to the usual practice in building kennels, you would have three doors; two in the front, and one in the back; the last to have a lattice-window in it, with a wooden shutter, which is constantly to be kept closed when the hounds are in, except in summer, when it should be left open all the day. This door answers two very necessary purposes: it gives an opportunity of carrying out the straw when the lodging-room is cleaned, and, as it is opposite to the window, will be a means to let in a thorough air, which will greatly contribute to keep it sweet and wholesome. The other doors will be of use in drying the room when the hounds are out; and as one is to be kept shut, and the other hooked back (allowing just room for a dog to pass), they are not liable to any objection. The great window in the centre should have a folding shutter; half, or the whole, of which, may be shut at nights, according to the weather: and your kennels, by that means, may be kept warm or cool, just as you please to have them. The two great lodging-rooms are exactly alike, and, as each has a court belonging to it, are distinct kennels, situated at the opposite ends of the building; in the centre of which is the boiling-house and feeding-yard; and on each side a lesser kennel, either for hounds that are drafted off, hounds that are sick, or lame; or for any other purposes, as occasion may require: at the back of which, as they are but half the depth of the two great kennels, are places for coals, &c. for the use of the kennel: there is also a small building in the rear, for hot bitches: the plan will show you the size of the whole. The floors of the inner courts, like those of the lodging-rooms, are bricked, and sloped towards the centre; and a channel of water, brought in by a leaden pipe, runs through the middle of them. In the centre of each court, is a well, large enough to dip a bucket, to clean the kennels: this must be faced with stone, or it will be often out of repair:—in the feeding-yard it should have a wooden cover.

The benches, which must be open, to let the urine through, should have hinges and hooks in the wall, that they may fold up, for the greater conveniency in washing out the kennel: they should also be made as low as possible, that a hound, when he is tired, may have no difficulty in jumping up, and at no time may be able to creep under.¹ Let me add, that the boiler should be of cast-iron.

The rest of the kennel consists of a large court in front, which is also bricked, having a grass-court adjoining, and a little brook running through the middle of it. The earth that was taken out of it, is thrown up into a mount, where the hounds, in summer, delight to sit. This court is planted round with trees, and has, besides, a lime-tree, and some horse-chestnut trees, near the middle of it, for the sake of shade. A high pale incloses the whole; part of which, to the height of about four feet, is close; the other open; the interstices are about two inches wide. The grass-court is pitched near the pale, to prevent the hounds from scratching out. Grass is the dog’s best emetic; and in this he is his own physician. If you cannot guess the intention of the posts which you see in the courts, there is scarcely an inn window on any road, where the following line will not let you into the secret:

This is done to save the trees, to which the urinary salts are prejudicial. If they be at first backward in coming to them, bind some straw round the bottom, and rub it with galbanum. The brook in the grass-court may serve as a stew: your fish will be very safe.²

At the back of the kennel is a house, thatched and furzed up on the sides, big enough to contain at least a load of straw. Here should be a pit ready to receive the dung, and a gallows for the flesh. The gallows should have a thatched roof, and a circular board at the posts of it, to prevent vermin from climbing up. If you can inclose a piece of ground adjoining to your kennel, for such doghorses as may be brought to you alive, it will be of great use; as it might be dangerous to turn them out where other horses go; for you may not always be able to discover their disorders. Hither you may also bring your hounds, after they have been fed, to empty themselves; here you will have more opportunities of seeing them than in the kennel; and will be enabled, therefore, to make your draft for the next day with greater accuracy.

A stove, I believe, is made use of in some kennels; but, where the feeder is a good one, a mop, properly used, will render it unnecessary. I have a little hay-rick in the grass-yard, which I think is of use, to keep the hounds clean, and fine in their coats: you will find them frequently rubbing themselves against it: the shade of it also is useful to them in summer. If ticks at any time be troublesome in your kennel, let the walls of it be well washed: if that should not destroy them, the walls must then be whitewashed.

In the summer, when you do not hunt, one kennel will be sufficient: the other may then be set apart for the young hounds, who should also have the grass-court adjoining to it. It is best, at that time of the year, to keep them separate; and it prevents many accidents which otherwise might happen; nor should they be put together till the hunting season begins.³ If your hounds be very quarrelsome, the feeder may sleep in a cot in the kennel adjoining; and, if they be well chastised at the first quarrel, his voice will be sufficient to settle all their differences afterwards.⁴ Close to the door of the kennel, let there be always a quantity of little switches; which three narrow boards, nailed to one of the posts, will easily contain.⁵

My kennel is close to the road-side, but it was unavoidable. This is the reason why my front pale is close, and only the side ones open: it is a great fault: avoid it if you can, and your hounds will be the quieter.

Upon looking over my Letter, I find that I begin by recommending, with Mr. Somerville, a high situation for the kennel, and afterwards talk of a brook running through the middle of it: I am afraid that you will not be able to unite these two advantages; in which case, without doubt, water should be preferred. The mount that I have mentioned will answer all the purposes of an eminence: besides, there should be moveable stages on wheels, for the hounds to lie upon; at any rate, however, let your soil be a dry one.⁶

You will, perhaps, think my lodging-rooms higher than is necessary. I know that they are considerably higher than is usual; the intention of which is, to give more air to the hounds; and I have not the least doubt that they are the better for it. I will no longer persecute you with this unentertaining subject, but send you a plan from my own kennel, and take my leave of you.

P.S.—I send only the ground-plan and elevation, as the size of the outer court, and grass-court, are perfectly immaterial; the one should not be small, and the other should be as large as you can conveniently make it.

¹Benches cannot be too low. If, owing to the smallness of the hound, it should be difficult to render them low enough, a projecting ledge will answer the same purpose; and the benches may be boarded at bottom, to prevent the hound from creeping under.

²It may also be used as a cold bath, for such hounds as stand in need of it: for lameness in the stifle, and for strains, it will be found of service.

³The dogs and the bitches may also be kept separate from each other during the summer months, where there are conveniences for it.

⁴In a kennel in Oxfordshire, the feeder pulls a bell, which the hounds understand the meaning of: it silences them immediately, and saves him the trouble of getting out of his bed.

⁵When hounds are perfectly obedient, whips are no longer necessary; switches in my opinion, are preferable. The whips I use are coach-whips, three feet long, the thong half the length of the crop: they are more handy than horse-whips, correct the hounds as well, and hurt them less.

[⁶The hill is to be preferred to the running water, and the soil should be a stiff clay. Kennels should never be built on gravel. Clay certainly holds moisture, but at the same time it prevents any moisture rising from below. There is always water beneath gravel, and the heat of the hounds’ bodies will draw it up from any depth. This is the cause of that terrible scourge kennel-lameness, which is nothing else but rheumatism. If kennels are already built on gravel, the floor should be taken up, the ground excavated, and three feet of clay puddled in. Of course spouting should be attended to, and if there is any high ground above the kennel floor, drains should be made to carry off surface water.]