It is time, however, to speak of the kennel, whether we regard the sporting architecture of Mr.G. Tattersall, or the scientific inquiries of Mr. Vyner, or a sketch of the noble buildings at Goodwood.
The lodging-rooms should be ceiled, but not plastered, with ventilators above and a large airy window on either side. The floors should be laid with flags or paved with bricks. Cement may be used instead of mortar, and the kennels will then be found wholesome and dry. The doorways of the lodging-houses will generally be four feet and a half wide, in the clear. The posts are rounded, to prevent the hounds from being injured when they rush out. The benches may be made of cast-iron or wood; those composed of iron being most durable, but the hounds are more frequently lamed in getting to them. The wooden benches must be bound with iron, or the hounds will gnaw or destroy them. A question has arisen, whether the benches should be placed round the kennel, or be in the centre of it, allowing a free passage by the side. There is least danger of the latter being affected by the damp. The walls should be wainscoted to the height of three feet at least. This will tend very considerably to their comfort.
The floors of all the courts should be arranged in nearly the same way; the partition walls being closed at the bottom, but with some iron work above. The doorways should also be so contrived, that the huntsman may be able to enter whenever he pleases. The boiling-house should be at as great a distance from the hunting-kennel as can be managed, continuing to give warmth to the infirmary for distempered puppies, and at ihe same time being out of the way of the other courts.
Mr. Vyner gives an interesting account of the young hounds' kennel:
"This building," he says, "should be as far from the other lodging-rooms as the arrangements of the structure will allow. There is also an additional court, or grass-yard, an indispensable requisite in the puppies' kennel. The size must be regulated according to the waste land at the end of the building; but the longer it is, the better. At the farther end of the grass-court is a hospital for such young hounds as are distempered, so contrived as to be remote from the other kennels, and, at the same time, within an easy distance of the boiling-house, whence it is apparently approached by an outside door, through which the feeder can constantly pass to attend to the sick hounds without disturbing the healthy lots. Although this lodging room is warmed by the chimney of the boiling-house, it must be well ventilated by two windows, to which shutters must be attached; ventilation and good air being quite as necessary to the cure of distemper as warmth."
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We now proceed to a most important and ill-understood subject — the nature and treatment of
kennel lameness
. It is a subject that nearly concerns the sportsman, and on which there are several and the most contrary opinions.
This is a kind of lameness connected with, or attributable to, the kennel. According to the early opinion of Mr. Asheton Smith, who is a good authority, it was referable to some peculiarity in the breed or management of the hounds; but, agreeably to a later opinion, it is dependent on situation and subsoil, and may be aggravated or increased by circumstances over which we have no control. Some kennels are in low and damp situations, yet the hounds are free from all complaint: and others, with the stanchest dogs and under the best management, are continually sinking under kennel lameness.
Mr. R. T.
Vyner
was one of the first who scientifically treated on this point, and taught us that
clay is not by any means an objectionable soil to build a kennel upon
, although so many pseudo-sportsmen are frightened by the very name of it.
He enters at once into his subject.
"I am thoroughly convinced," says he, "from my own experience, and, I may add, my own suffering, that the disease of kennel lameness arises only from one cause, and that is an injudicious and unfortunate selection of the spot for building. The kennel is generally built on a sand-bed, or on a sandstone rock, while the healthiest grounds in England are on a stiff clay, and they are the healthiest because they are the least porous. Although this may be contrary to the opinion and prejudice of the majority of sportsmen, it is a fact that cannot be contradicted.Through a light and friable soil, such as sand and sandstone, a vapour, more or less dense, is continually exhaling and causing a perpetual damp, which produces that fearful rheumatism which goes by the name of kennel lameness, while the kennels that are built on a clay soil, a soil of an impervious nature, are invariably healthy.I could," he adds, "enumerate twenty kennels to prove the effect — the invariable effect — of the existence of the disease on the one part, and of the healthiness of the situation on the other. I turn particularly to her Majesty's kennel at Ascot, the arches of which were laid under the very foundation strain, and yet little at no amendment has ever taken place in the healthiness and comfort of the dogs. It is necessary to select a sound and healthy situation when about to erect a kennel, and that sound and healthy situation can be met with alone on a strong impervious clay soil. We must have no fluid oozing through the walls or the floor of the kennel, and producing damp and unhealthy vapours, such as we find in the sandbed."
With regard to this there can be no error.
Nimrod
, in his excellent treatise on
Kennel Lameness
, asks, whether it does not appear that this disease is on the increase. He asks,
How is it that neither Beckford nor Somerville says one word that clearly applies to the disease; and no one, however learned he might be in canine pathology, has been able clearly to define the disease, much less to discover a remedy for it?"
All
that Mr. Blaine says on the matter amounts only to this:
"The healthiness of the situation on which any kennel is to be built, is an important consideration. It is essential that it should be both dry and airy, and it should also be warm. A damp kennel produces rheumatism in dogs, which shows itself sometimes by weakness in the loins, but more frequently by lameness in the shoulders, known under the name of kennel lameness."
Mr
. Blaine illustrates this by reference to his own experience.
"There is no disease, with the exception of distemper and mange, to which dogs are so liable as to a rheumatic affection of some part of the body. It presents almost as many varieties in the dog as it does in man; and it has some peculiarities observable in the dog only. Rheumatism never exists in a dog without affecting the bowels. There will be inflammation or painful torpor through the whole of the intestinal canal. It is only in some peculiar districts that this occurs; it pervades certain kennels only; and but until lately there has been little or almost no explanation of the cause of the evil."20
Nimrod took a most important view of the matter, and to him the sporting world is much indebted.
"How is it," he asks, "that, in our younger days, we never heard of kennel lameness, or, indeed, of hounds being lame at all, unless from accident, or becoming shaken and infirm from not having been composed of that iron-bound material which the labours of a greyhound or a hound require? How is it, that, in our younger days, masters of hounds began the season with 50 or 60 couples, and, bating the casualties, left off at the end of it equally strong in their kennels, and able, perhaps, to make a valuable draft; whereas we now hear of one-half of the dogs in certain localities being disabled by disease, and some masters of hounds compelled to be stopped in their work until their kennels are replenished."
Washing
hounds when they come home after work must be injurious to them, although it has almost become the fashion of modern times. If they are not washed at all, and we believe it to be unnecessary, yet the kennels in which lameness has appeared should be strictly avoided. It should be on the day following and not in the evening of a hunting-day that washing should take place.
Mr. Hodgson told Nimrod, that the Quorn Pack never had a case of kennel lameness until his late huntsman took to washing his hounds after hunting, and then he often had four or five couples ill from this cause. He deprecated even their access to water in the evening after hunting, and we believe that he was quite right in so doing.
The
tongue of the dog, with the aid of clean straw, is his best and safest instrument in cleansing his person; and, if he can be brought to his kennel with tolerably clean feet, as Mr. Foljambe enables him to be brought, he will never be long before he is comfortable in his bed, after his belly is filled.
There is another mode, as a preventive of kennel lameness, which we have the best authority for saying deserves particular attention, and that is, the frequently turning hounds off their benches during the day, even if it were to the extent of every two hours throughout the entire day. We do not mean to deny the existence of a disease, which, being produced in the kennel, is properly termed kennel lameness. Some kennels are, no doubt, more unhealthy and prone to engender rheumatic affections than others; but, by proper management, and avoiding as much as possible all exciting causes, their effects may, at least, be very much lessened, if not entirely obviated.
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Lord
Fitzhardinge's opinion of the situation of the kennel and the management of the hounds, as given in the
New Sporting Magazine
, is somewhat different from that which has been just given. The following is the substance of it:
21
He states that the kennel should be built on a dry and warm situation. Of this there can be no doubt: the comfort and almost the existence of the dog depend upon it. To this he adds that it must not be placed on a gravelly or porous soil, over which vapours more or less dense are frequently or continually travelling, and thus causing a destructive exhalation over the whole of the building. There must be no fluid oozing through the walls or the floor of the kennel, and producing damp and unhealthy vapours. When we have not a deep supersoil of clay, one or two layers of bricks or of stone may line the floor, and then, not even the most subtile vapour can penetrate through the floor. A clean bed of straw should be allowed every second day, or oftener when the weather is wet. The lodging-houses should be ceiled, and there should be shutters to the windows. A thatched roof is preferable to tiles, being warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
Stoves in the kennels are not necessary: probably they are best avoided; for, if dogs are accustomed to any considerable degree of artificial heat, they are more easily chilled by a long exposure to cold. Their teeth and the setting-up of their backs will confirm this.
Hounds, when they feel cold, naturally seek each other for warmth, and they may be seen lying upon the straw and licking each other; and that is by far the most wholesome way of procuring comfort and warmth.
On
returning from hunting, their feet should be washed with some warm fluid, and especially the eyes should be examined, and their food got ready for them as soon as possible. The feeding in the morning should be an hour, or an hour and a half, before they start for the field.
It is truly observed by the noble writer to whom we have referred, that there is no part of an establishment of this kind that merits more attention than the boiling and feeding house. The hounds cannot perform their work well unless judiciously fed. Each hound requires particular and constitutional care. No more than five of them should be let in to feed together, and often not more than one or two. The feeder should have each hound under his immediate observation, or they may get too much or too little of the food.
Some hounds cannot run if they carry much flesh; others are all the better for having plenty about them. The boilers should be of iron, two in number, — one for meal and the smaller one for flesh. The large boiler should render it necessary to be used not more than once in four days or a week. The food should be stirred for two hours, then transferred to flat coolers, until sufficiently gelatinous to be cut with a kind of spade. By the admixture of some portion of soups it may be brought to any thickness requisite. The flesh to be mixed with it should be cut very small, that the greedy hounds may not be able to obtain more than their share. Four bushels and a half of genuine old oatmeal should be boiled with a hundred gallons of water. The flesh should he boiled every second or third day. Too great a proportion of soup would render the mixture of a heating nature.
Mr. Delmé Radcliffe very truly observes that the feeding of hounds, as regards their condition, is one of the most essential proofs of a huntsman's skill in the management of the kennel. To preserve that even state of condition throughout the pack which is so desirable, he must be well acquainted with the appetite of every hound; for some will feed with a voracity scarcely credible, and others will require every kind of enticement to induce them to feed.
Mr. Meynell found that the use of dry unboiled oatmeal succeeded better than any other thing he had tried with delicate hounds. When once induced to take it, they would eat it greedily, and it seemed to be far more heartening than most kinds of aliment. Other hounds of delicate constitution might be tempted with a little additional flesh, and with the thickest and best of the trough, but they required to be watched, and often to be coaxed to eat.
The dog possesses the power of struggling against want of food for an almost incredible period. One of these animals, six years old, was missing three-and-twenty days; at length some children wandering in a distant wood thought that they frequently heard the baying of a dog. The master was told of it, and at the bottom of an old quarry, sixty feet deep, and the mouth of which he had almost closed by his vain attempts to escape, the voice of the poor fellow was recognised. With much difficulty he was extricated, and found in a state of emaciation; his body cold as ice and his thirst inextinguishable, and he scarcely able to move. They gave him at intervals small portions of bread soaked in milk and water. Two days afterwards he was able to follow his master a short distance.
This occurrence is mentioned by M. Pinguin as a proof that neither hunger nor thirst could produce rabies.
Messrs
. Majendie and F. Cousins have carried their observations to the extent of forty days — a disgraceful period.
22
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Sixty-five couple of hounds in full work will consume the carcases of three horses in one week, or five in a fortnight. The annual consumption of meal will be somewhat more than two tons per month.
In feeding, the light eaters should be let in first, and a little extra flesh distributed on the surface of the food, in order to coax those that are most shy. Some hounds cannot be kept to their work unless fed two or three times a day; while others must not be allowed more than six or seven laps, or they would get too much.
In
summer an extra cow or two will be of advantage in the dairy; for the milk, after it has been skimmed, may be used instead of flesh. There must always be a little flesh in hand for the sick, for bitches with their whelps, and for the entry of young hounds.
23
About Christmas is the time to arrange the breeding establishment. The number of puppies produced is usually from five to eight or nine; but, in one strange case, eighteen of them made their appearance. The constitution and other appearances in the dam, will decide the number to be preserved. When the whelps are sufficiently grown to run about, they should be placed in a warm situation, with plenty of fresh grass, and a sufficient quantity of clean, but not too stimulating, food. They should then be marked according to their respective letters, that they may be always recognised. When the time comes, the ears of the dog should be rounded; the size of the ear and of the head guiding the rounding-iron.
This being passed, the master of the pack takes care that his treatment shall be joyous and playful; encouragement is always with him the word. The dog should be taught the nature of the fault before he is corrected: no animal is more grateful for kindness than a hound; the peculiarities of his temper will soon be learned, and when he begins to love his master, he will mind, from his natural and acquired affection, a word or a frown from him more than the blows of all the whips that were ever put into the hands of the keepers.
The distemper having passed, and the young hounds being in good health, they should be walked out every day, and taught to follow the horse, with a keeper who is selected as a kind and quiet person, and will bear their occasionally entangling themselves in their couples. They are then taken to the public roads, and there exercised, and checked from riot, but with as little severity as possible; a frequent and free use of the whip never being allowed. No animals take their character from their master so much as the hounds do from theirs. If he is wild, or noisy, or nervous, so will his hounds be; if he is steady and quick, the pack will be the same. The whip should never be applied but for some immediate and decided fault. A rate given at an improper time does more harm than good: it disgusts the honest hound, it shies and prevents from hunting the timid one, and it is treated with contempt by those of another character who may at some future time deserve it. It formerly was the custom, and still is too much so, when a hound
has hung on a hare
, to catch him when he comes up, and flog him. The consequence of this is, that he takes good care the next time he indulges in a fault not to come out of cover at all.
We will conclude this part of our subject by a short account of the splendid kennel at Goodwood, for which we are indebted to Lord W. Lennox, with the kind permission of the Duke of Richmond. It is described as one of the most complete establishments of the kind in England. The original establishment of this building, although a little faulty, possesses considerable interest from its errors being corrected by the third Duke of Richmond, a man who is acknowledged to have been one of the most popular public characters of the day, and who in more private life extended his patronage to all that was truly honourable. It was to the Duke's support of native talent that we may trace the origin of the present Royal Academy. In 1758, the Duke of Richmond displayed, at his residence in Whitehall, a large collection of original plaster casts, taken from the finest statues and busts of the ancient sculptors. Every artist was freely admitted to this exhibition and, for the further encouragement of talent, he bestowed two medals annually on such as had exhibited the best models.
We have thus digressed in order to give a slight sketch of the nobleman by whom this kennel was built, and we do not think that we can do better than lay before our readers the original account of it.
The entrance to the kennel is delineated in the centre with a flight of stairs leading above. The huntsman's rooms, four in number first present themselves, and are marked in the plan before us by the letter
C
; each of them is fifteen feet four inches, by fourteen feet six inches.
At each end of the side towards the court is one of the feeding-rooms, twenty-nine feet by fourteen feet four inches, and nobly constructed rooms they are; they are designated by the letters
B
. At the back of the feeding-rooms, are one set of the lodging-rooms, from thirty-five feet six inches, to fourteen feet four inches, and marked by the letters
A
, and at either extremity is another lodging-room, thirty-two feet six inches in length, and fourteen feet six inches in width: this is also marked by the letter
A
.
Coming into the court we find the store-room twenty-four feet by fourteen and a half, marked by the letter
D
, and the stable, of the same dimensions, by the letter
E
.
At the top of the buildings are openings for the admission of cold air, and stoves to warm the air when too cold. There are plentiful supplies of water from tanks holding 10,000 gallons; so that there is no inconvenience from the smell, and the whole can at any time be drained, and not be rendered altogether useless.
Round the whole building is a pavement five feet wide; airy yards and places for breeding, &c., making part of each wing. For the huntsman and whipper-in there are sleeping-rooms, and a neat parlour or kitchen.
Soon after the kennel was erected, it would contain two packs of hounds.
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The largest of the English hounds that has been lately used, is devoted, as his name implies, to the chase of the deer. He is taller than the fox-hound, and with far more delicate scent, but he is not so speedy. He answers better than any other to the description given of the old English hound, so much valued when the country, less enclosed, and the forests, numerous and extensive, were the harbours of the wild deer. The deer-hound and the harrier were for many centuries the only hunting-dogs. The fox-hound has been much more recently bred.
The most tyrannic and cruel laws were enforced for the preservation of this species of game, and the life of the deer, except when sacrificed in the chase, and by those who were privileged to join in it, was guarded with even more strictness than the life of the human being. When, however, the country became more generally cultivated, and the stag was confined to enclosed parks, and was seldom sought in his lair, but brought into the field, and turned out before the dogs, so much interest was taken from the affair, that this species of hunting grew out of fashion, and was confined to the neighbourhood of the scattered forests that remained, and enjoyed only by royalty and a few noblemen, of whose establishment a kennel of deer-hounds had, from time immemorial, formed a part.
Since the death of George III, who was much attached to this sport, stag-hunting has rapidly declined, and the principal pleasure seems now to consist in the concourse of people brought together to an appointed place and hour, to witness the turning out of the deer. There is still maintained a royal establishment for the continuance of this noble sport, but, unless better supported than it has of late years been, it will gradually decline.
The stag-hounds are now a part of the regular Crown establishment. The royal kennel is situated upon Ascot Heath, about six miles from Windsor. At the distance of a mile from the kennel is Swinley Lodge, the official residence of the Master of the Stag-hounds.
The stag-hound is a beautiful animal. He is distinguished from the fox-hound by the apparent broadness and shortness of his head, his longer cheek, his straighter hock, his wider thigh and deeper chest, and better feathered and more beautifully arched tail. His appearance indicates strength and stoutness, in which indeed he is unequalled, and he has sufficient speed to render it difficult for the best horses long to keep pace with him; while, as is necessary, when the distance between the footmarks of the deer is considered, his scent is most exquisite. He is far seldomer at fault than any other hound except the blood-hound, and rarely fails of running down his game.
Of the stoutness of this dog, the following anecdotes will be a sufficient illustration. A deer, in the spring of 1822, was turned out before the Earl of Derby's hounds in Hayes Common. The chase was continued nearly four hours without a check, when, being almost run down, the animal took refuge in some outhouses near Speldhurst in Kent, more than forty miles across the country, and having actually run more than fifty miles. Nearly twenty horses died in the field, or in consequence of the severity of the chase.
A stag was turned out at Wingfield Park, in Northumberland. The whole pack, with the exception of two hounds, was, after a long run, thrown out. The stag returned to his accustomed haunt, and, as his last effort, leaped the wall of the park, and lay down and died. One of the hounds, unable to clear the wall, fell and expired, and the other was found dead at a little distance. They had run about forty miles.
"Whenthe stag first hears the cry of the hounds, he runs with the swiftness of the wind, and continues to run as long as any sound of his pursuers can be distinguished. That having ceased, he pauses and looks carefully around him; but before he can determine what course to pursue, the cry of the pack again forces itself upon his attention. Once more he darts away, and after a while again pauses. His strength perhaps begins to fail, and he has recourse to stratagem in order to escape. He practises the doubling and the crossing of the fox or the hare. This being useless, he attempts to escape by plunging into some lake or river that happens to lie in his way, and when, at last, every attempt to escape proves abortive, he boldly faces his pursuers, and attacks the first dog or man who approaches him."24
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"So flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hungWith ears that sweep away the morning dew;Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd, like Thessalian bulls;Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,Each under each."
It was the slowness of the breed which occasioned its disuse. Several of them, however, remained not long ago at a village called Aveton Gifford, in Devonshire, in the neighbourhood of which some of the most opulent of the farmers used to keep two or three dogs each. When fox-hunting had assumed somewhat of its modern form, the chase was followed by a slow heavy hound, whose excellent olfactory organs enabled him to carry on the scent a considerable time after the fox-hound passed, and also over grassy fallows, and hard roads, and other places, where the modern high-bred fox-hound would not be able to recognise it. Hence the chase continued for double the duration which it does at present, and hence may be seen the reason why the old English hunter, so celebrated in former days and so great a favourite among sportsmen of the old school, was enabled to perform those feats which were exultingly bruited in his praise. The fact is, that the hounds and the horse were well matched. If the latter possessed not the speed of the Meltonian hunter, the hounds were equally slow and stanch.
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This illustration is a feature of the title-page (here).
This dog does not materially differ in appearance from the old deer-hound of a larger size, trained to hunt the human being instead of the quadruped. If once put on the track of a supposed robber, he would unerringly follow him to his retreat, although at the distance of many a mile. Such a breed was necessary when neither the private individual nor the government had other means to detect the offender. Generally speaking, however, the blood-hound of former days would not injure the culprit that did not attempt to escape, but would lie down quietly and give notice by a loud and peculiar howl what kind of prey he had found. Some, however, of a savage disposition, or trained to unnatural ferocity, would tear to pieces the hunted wretch, if timely rescue did not arrive.
Hounds of every kind, both great and small, may be broken in to follow any particular scent, and especially when they are feelingly convinced that they are not to hunt any other. This is the case with the blood-hound. He is destined to one particular object of pursuit, and a total stranger with regard to every other.
In the border country between England and Scotland, and until the union of the two kingdoms, these dogs were absolutely necessary for the preservation of property, and the detection of robbery and murder. A tax was levied on the inhabitants for the maintenance of a certain number of blood-hounds. When, however, the civic government had sufficient power to detect and punish crime, this dangerous breed of hounds fell into disuse and was systematically discouraged. It, nevertheless, at the present day, is often bred by the rangers in large forests or parks to track the deer-stealer, but oftener to find the wounded deer.
The blood-hound is taller and better formed than the deer-hound. It has large and deep ears, the forehead broad and the muzzle narrow. The expression of the countenance is mild and pleasing, when the dog is not excited; but, when he is following the robber, his ferocity becomes truly alarming.
The Thrapstone Association lately trained a blood-hound for the detection of sheepstealers. In order to prove the utility of this dog, a person whom he had not seen was ordered to run as far and as fast as his strength would permit. An hour afterwards the hound was brought out. He was placed on the spot whence the man had started. He almost immediately detected the scent and broke away, and, after a chase of an hour and a half, found him concealed in a tree, fifteen miles distant.