LETTER IV

I am glad that you do not disapprove the advantage I have made of my friend Somerville. I was doubtful whether you would not have censured me for it, and have compared me to some of those would-be fine gentlemen, who, to cut a figure, tack an embroidered edging on their coarse cloth. I shall be cautious, however, of abusing your indulgence, and shall not quote my poet oftener than is necessary; but where we think the same thing, you had better take it in his words than mine. I shall now proceed to the feeding of hounds, and management of them in the kennel.

A good feeder is an essential part of your establishment. Let him be young and active, and have the reputation at least of not disliking work: he should be good-tempered, for the sake of the animals entrusted to his care; and who, however they may be treated by him, cannot complain. He should be one who will strictly obey any orders that you may give, as well with regard to the management as to the breeding of the hounds; and should not be solely under the direction of your huntsman. It is true, I have seen it otherwise: I have known a pack of hounds belong, as it were, entirely to the huntsman; a stable of horses belong to the groom; while the master had little more power in the direction of either, than a perfect stranger. This you will not allow. I know that you choose to keep the supreme command in your own hands; and, though you permit your servants to remonstrate, you do not suffer them to disobey. He who allows a huntsman to manage his hounds without control, literally keeps them for the huntsman’s amusement. You desire to know what is required of a feeder: I will tell you as well as I can.

As our sport depends entirely on that exquisite sense of smelling so peculiar to the hound, care must be taken to preserve it; and cleanliness is the surest means. The keeping your kennel sweet and clean, cannot therefore be too much recommended to the feeder; nor should you on any account, admit the least deviation from it. If he sees you exact, he will be so himself. This is a very essential part of his business. The boiling for the hounds, mixing of the meat, and getting it ready for them at proper hours, your huntsman will of course take care of; nor is it ever likely to be forgotten. I must caution you not to let your dogs eat their meat too hot; I have known it attended with bad consequences; you should also order it to be mixed up as thick as possible. When the feeder has cleaned his kennel in the morning, and prepared his meat, it is usual for him, on hunting days (in an establishment like yours), to exercise the horses of the huntsman and whipper-in; and, in many stables, it is also the feeder who looks after the huntsman’s horse, when he comes in from hunting; whilst the huntsman feeds the hounds. When the hounds are not out, the huntsman and whipper-in, of course, will exercise their own horses; and, that day, the feeder has little else to mind but the cleaning of his kennel. Every possible contrivance has been attended to in the plan that I sent you, to make that part of his work easy; all the courts, except the grass court, being bricked and sloped on purpose. There is also plenty of water, without any trouble of fetching it; and a thorough air throughout the kennels, to assist in drying them again. Should you choose to increase your number of servants in the stable, the business of the feeder may be confined entirely to the kennel. There should be always two to feed the hounds properly; the feeder and the huntsman.

Somerville strongly recommends cleanliness in the following lines:

So perfectly right is the poet in this, that if you can make your kennel a visit every day, your hounds will be the better for it. When I have been long absent from mine, I have always perceived a difference in their looks. I shall now take notice of that part of the management of hounds in the kennel which concerns the huntsman, as well as the feeder. Your huntsman must always attend the feeding of the hounds, which should be drafted, according to the condition they are in. In all packs, some hounds will feed better than others: some there are that will do with less meat; and it requires a nice eye, and great attention, to keep them all in equal flesh: it is what distinguishes a good kennel-huntsman, and has its merit. It is seldom that huntsmen give this particular all the attention which it deserves: they feed their hounds in too great a hurry; and not often, I believe, take the trouble of casting their eye over them before they begin; and yet to distinguish with any nicety the order that a pack of hounds are in, and the different degrees of it, is surely no easy task; and, to be done well, requires no small degree of circumspection. You had better not expect your huntsman to be very exact: where precision is required, he will most probably fail.

When I am present myself, I make several drafts. When my huntsman feeds them, he calls them all over by their names, letting in each hound as he is called: it has its use; it uses them to their names, and teaches them to be obedient. Were it not for this, I should disapprove of it entirely; since it certainly requires more coolness and deliberation to distinguish with precision which are best entitled to precedence, than this method of feeding will admit of; and unless flesh be in great plenty, those that are called in last may not have a taste of it. To prevent this inconvenience, such as are low in flesh had better be all drafted off into a separate kennel;¹ by this means, the hounds that require flesh will all have a share of it. If any be much poorer than the rest, they should be fed again: such hounds cannot be fed too often. If any in the pack be too fat, they should be drafted off, and not suffered to fill themselves. The others should eat what they will of the meat. The days my hounds have greens, or sulphur, they generally are let in all together; and such as require flesh, have it given to them afterwards. Having a good kennel-huntsman, it is not often that I take this trouble; yet I seldom go into my kennel, but I indulge myself in the pleasure of seeing food given to such hounds as appear to me to be in want of it. I have been told, that in one kennel, in particular, the hounds are under such excellent management, that they constantly are fed with the door of the feeding-yard open; and the rough nature of the fox-hound is changed into so much politeness, that he waits at the door till he is invited in; and, what perhaps is not less extraordinary, he comes out again, whether he has satisfied his hunger or not, the moment he is desired—the effect of discipline. However, as this is not absolutely necessary, and hounds may be good without it; and as I well know that your other amusements will not permit you to attend to so much manœuvring—I would by no means wish you to give such power to your huntsman. The business would be injudiciously done, and most probably would not answer your expectations. The hound would be tormented mal-à-propos; an animal so little deserving of it from our hands, that I should be sorry to disturb his hours of repose by unnecessary severity. You will perceive that it is a nice affair; and, I assure you, I know no huntsman who is equal to it. The gentleman who has carried this matter to its utmost perfection, has attended to it regularly himself; has constantly acted on fixed principles, from which he has never deviated; and, I believe, has succeeded to the very utmost of his wishes. All hounds (and more especially young ones) should be called over often in the kennel;² and most huntsmen practise this lesson as they feed their hounds: they flog them while they feed them; and if they have not always a belly-full one way, they seldom fail to have it the other.³ It is not, however, my intention to oppose so general a practice, in which there may be some utility; I shall only observe, that it should be used with discretion; lest the whip should fall heavily, in the kennel, on such as never deserve it in the field.

My hounds are generally fed about eleven o’clock;⁴ and, when I am present myself, I take the same opportunity to make my draft for the next day’s hunting. I seldom, when I can help it, leave this to my huntsman; though it is necessary that he should be present when the draft is made, that he may know what hounds he has out.

It is a bad custom to use hounds to the boiling-house: it is apt to make them nice, and may prevent them from ever eating the kennel meat. What they have should always be given them in the feeding-yard; and for the same reason, though it be flesh, it should have some meal mixed with it.

If your hounds be low in flesh, and have far to go to cover, they may all have a little thin lap again in the evening; but this should never be done if you hunt early.⁵ Hounds, I think, should be sharp set before hunting: they run the better for it.⁶

If many of your hounds, after long rest, should be too fat,⁷ feeding them for a day or two on thinner meat than you give the others, will be found, I believe, to answer better than the usual method of giving them the same meat, and stinting them in the quantity of it.

If your hounds be not walked out, they should be turned into the grass-court to empty themselves, after they have been fed: it will contribute not a little to the cleanliness of the kennel.

I have heard, that it is a custom in some kennels to shut up the hounds for a couple of hours after they come in from hunting, before they are fed; and that other hounds are shut up with them, to lick them clean.⁸ My usual way is to send in a whipper-in before them, that the meat may be got ready against they come, and they are fed immediately: having filled their bellies, they are naturally inclined to rest. If they have had a severe day, they are fed again some hours after.⁹ As to the method above mentioned, it may be more convenient, perhaps, to have the hounds all together; but I cannot think it necessary, for the reason that is given; and I should apprehend, a parcel of idle hounds shut up amongst such as are tired and inclined to rest, would disturb them more than all their licking would make amends for. When you feed them twice, keep them separate till after the second feeding: it would be still better, were they not put together till the next morning.

Every day, when hounds come in from hunting, they ought carefully to be looked over, and invalids should immediately be taken care of.¹⁰ Such as have sore feet, should have them well washed out with brine, or pot-liquor. If you permit those hounds that are unable to work, to run about your house, it will be of great service to them. Such as are ill, or lame, ought to be turned out into another kennel; it will be more easy to give them there the attention they may require, both as to medicine and food.

Every Thursday during the hunting-season, my hounds have one pound of sulphur given them in their meat; and every Sunday throughout the year they have plenty of greens boiled up with it: I find it better to fix the days, as it is then less liable to be forgotten. I used to give them the wash from the kitchen, but I found it made them thirsty; and it is now omitted in the hunting-season. A horse fresh killed is an excellent meal for hounds, after a very hard day; but they should not hunt till the third day after it. The bones broken are good food for poor hounds, as there is great proof in them. Sheep-trotters are very sweet food, and will be of service when horse-flesh is not to be had. Bullock’s bellies may be also of some use, if you can get nothing else. Oatmeal, I believe, makes the best meat for hounds: barley is certainly the cheapest; and in many kennels they give barley on that account; but it is heating, does not mix up so well, nor is there so much proof in it as in oatmeal. If mixed (an equal quantity of each), it will then do very well; but barley alone will not. Much also depends on the goodness of the meal itself, which is not often attended to. If you do not use your own, you should buy a large quantity of it any time before harvest, and keep it by you: there is no other certainty, I believe, of having it old; which is more material, perhaps, than you are aware of. I have heard, that a famous Cheshire huntsman feeds his hounds with wheat, which he has found to be the best food: he gives it them with the bran. It would cause no little disturbance in many neighbourhoods, if other sportsmen were to do the same.

I am not fond of bleeding hounds, unless they want it; though it has long been a custom in my kennel to physic them twice a year; after they leave off hunting, and before they begin: it is given in hot weather, and at an idle time: it cools their bodies, and, without doubt, is of service to them. If a hound be in want of physic, I prefer giving it in balls.¹¹ It is more easy to give in this manner the quantity that he may want, and you are more certain that he takes it. In many kennels they also bleed them twice a year; and some people think that it prevents madness. The anointing of hounds, or dressing them, as huntsmen call it, makes them fine in their coats: it may be done twice a year, or oftener, if you find it necessary. As I shall hereafter have occasion to write on the diseases of hounds, and their cures, I will send you at the same time a receipt for this purpose. During the summer months, when my hounds do not hunt, they have seldom any flesh allowed them, and are kept low, contrary, I believe, to the usual practice of most kennels where mangey hounds, in summer, are but too often seen. Huntsmen sometimes content themselves with checking this disorder, when with less trouble, perhaps, they might prevent it. A regular course of whey and vegetables, during the hot months, must certainly be wholesome, and is, without doubt, the cause that a mangey hound is an unusual sight in my kennel. Every Monday and Friday my hounds go for whey, till the hunting season begins; are kept out several hours; and are often made to swim through rivers, during the hot weather.¹² After the last physic, and before they begin to hunt, they are exercised on the turnpike road, to harden their feet, which are washed with strong brine as soon as they come in. Little straw is necessary during the summer; but when they hunt they cannot have too much, or have it changed too often. In many kennels they do not boil for the hounds in summer, but give them meal only: in mine it is always boiled; but with this difference, that it is mixed up thin, instead of thick. Many give spurge-laurel in summer, boiled up in their meat: as I never use it, I cannot recommend it. The physic that I give, is two pounds of sulphur, one pound of antimony, and a pint and a half of syrup of buckthorn, for about forty couple of hounds.¹³ In the winter season, let your hounds be shut up warm at night. If, after hunting, any hounds be missing, the straw-house door should be left open; and, if they have had a hard day, it may be as well to leave some meat there for them.

I have inquired of my feeder (who is a good one, and has had more experience in these matters than any one that you perhaps may get) how he mixes up his meat. He tells me, that, in his opinion, oatmeal and barley mixed (an equal quantity of each) make the best meat for hounds. The oatmeal he boils for half an hour, and then puts out the fire, puts the barley into the copper, and mixes both together. I asked him, why he boiled one, and not the other? He told me, that boiling, which made oatmeal thick, made barley thin; and that when you feed with barley only, it should not be put into the copper, but be scalded with the liquor, and mixed up in a bucket. I find there is in my kennel a large tub on purpose, which contains about half a hogshead.

You little think, perhaps, how difficult it is to be a good kennel-huntsman; nor can you, as yet, know the nicety that is required to feed hounds properly. You are not aware, that some hounds will hunt best when fed late; others when fed early; that some should have but little; that others cannot have too much:—however, if your huntsman observe the rules that I have here laid down, his hounds will not do much amiss. But should you at any time wish to renchérir upon the matter, and feed each particular hound so as to make the most of him, you must learn it of a gentleman in Leicestershire, to whom the noble science of fox-hunting is more beholden than to any other. I shall myself say nothing further on the subject; for as your huntsman will not have the sense of the gentleman I allude to, nor you, perhaps, his patience, an easier method I know will suit you best. I shall only advise you, while you endeavour to keep your hounds in good order, not to let them become too fat: it will be impossible for them to run, if they be so. A fat alderman would cut a mighty ridiculous figure, were he inclined to run a race.

¹By thus separating from the rest such as are poor, you will proceed to the feeding of your hounds with more accuracy and less trouble; and though they be at first drafted off in the manner above described, it is still meant that they should be let in to feed, one by one, as they answer to their names; or else, as it will frequently happen, they may be better fed than taught.

²There is no better method of teaching a hound obedience; when you call him he should approach you; and when you touch him with your stick, he should follow you anywhere.

³“Thus we find, eat or not eat, work or play, whipping is always in season.” (Vide Monthly Review). The critic treats this passage with great severity. He would have spared it, without doubt, had he understood that it was introduced on purpose to correct the abuse of kennel-discipline. Unacquainted as the reviewer seems to be with the subject, it is no wonder that he should mistake a meaning, perhaps rather unfairly stated by the author, in favour of that humanity which he is supposed so much to want. Hounds are called in to feed, one by one, and such only are corrected as come uncalled for: nor is correction unjust, so long as it shall fall on the disobedient only. Obedience is an useful lesson, and though it cannot be practised too often, it should be taught them at a more idle time.

⁴Having found it necessary to alter my method of feeding hounds, it may not be improper to take notice of it here. They are now fed at eight o’clock, instead of eleven. Their first feed is of barley and oatmeal mixed, an equal quantity of each. Flesh is afterwards mixed up with the remainder, for such hounds as are poor, who are then drafted off into another kennel, and let in to feed altogether. When the flesh is all eaten, the pack are again let in, and are by this means cheated into a second appetite. At three o’clock, those that are to hunt the next day are drafted into the hunting-kennel; they are then let into the feeding-yard, where a small quantity of oatmeal (about three buckets) is prepared for them, mixed up thick. Such as are tender, or bad feeders, have a handful of boiled flesh given to them afterwards. When they are not to hunt the next day, they are fed once only, at eleven o’clock.

⁵Hounds that are tender feeders cannot be fed too late, or with meat too good.

⁶Vide note, page 29.

⁷Hounds that rest should not be suffered to become fat. It would be accounting very badly for the fatness of a hound, to say, “He is fat because he has not worked lately;” since he ought to have been kept lower on that account.

⁸If hounds be shut up as soon as they come in from hunting, they will not readily leave the benches afterwards; for if they be much fatigued, they will prefer rest to food.

⁹My hounds are generally fed twice on the days they hunt. Some will feed better the second time than the first; besides, the turning them out of the lodging-house refreshes them: they stretch their limbs, empty their bodies; and, as during this time their kennel is cleaned out, and litter shaken up, they settle themselves better on the benches afterwards.

¹⁰Hounds that come home lame should not be taken out the next hunting day, since they may appear sound without being so. At the beginning of the season, the eyes of hounds are frequently injured: such hounds should not be hunted, and, if their eyes continue weak, they should lose a little blood.

¹¹One pound of antimony, four ounces of sulphur, and syrup of buckthorn q. s. to give it the consistency of a ball. Each ball weighs about seven drachms.

[¹²Hounds should be walked out every day in the summer. Success in the future season will largely depend on the trouble that has been taken in getting the pack fit beforehand. In the six weeks previous to the commencement of the season, hounds should have at least two hours’ exercise on the roads daily, and twice a week they should have six hours’, if the sun is not too hot. On these occasions the men may take them out three hours before breakfast with one lot of horses and three hours afterwards with fresh mounts. If a saving of horses is a consideration, and the men can ride bicycles, these useful machines may be substituted.]

¹³Vide page 23.