usual practice, Mr. Beckford recommends three doors, two in front and one in the back, and his reasons seem fully adequate to justify the innovation. In fact, the whole of the chapter on kennels is marked by great originality and depth of argu ment. From the kennel, let us pass to the hound. What kind of hound, to speak generally, is the best? Somervile shall answer. Observe, nor the large hound prefer, of size Torn and embarrassed bleeds: but if too small, Benumbed and faint beneath the sheltering thorn." To this we add Beckford's observation, " that to look well, they should be all nearly of a size, and I even think they should all look of the same family. Facies non omnibus una, Nec diversa tamen; qualem decet esse sororum." There are many necessary points in the shape of a hound, which should always be attended to by a sportsman; for if his symmetry is not perfect, he will neither run fast, nor bear much work. "Let his legs be strait as arrows; his feet round, and not too large; his chest deep, and back broad; his head small; his neck thin; his tail thick and brushy-if he carries it well, so much the better. This last point, however trifling it may appear, gave rise to a very odd question: A gentleman, not much acquainted with hounds, as we were hunting the other day, said, 'I observe, sir, that some of your dogs' tails stand up, and some hang down; pray, sir, which do you reckon the best hounds?'-The colour, I think the least material of all; and I think, with our friend Foote, that a good dog, like a good candidate, cannot be of a bad colour." It is not easy to say positively how many hounds should be kept; but from twenty to thirty couple are as many as can be taken into the field at once with advantage. The chief excellence in a pack, is the head they carry; and though single hounds may not run so fast as others, that pack goes fastest which can run ten miles the soonest. In one particular a sin gular resemblance has been remarked between the hound and his master. "Considered in a collective body, a pack goes fast in proportion to the excellence of their noses." Oh! the rogues. Mr. Beckford's description of a good feeder is a model on which any public functionary might be formed with great advantage to the nation. Diligence, care, honesty, industry, knowledge, and benevolence-no quality or virtue can be named in a minister's character which is not essential in the feeder's. There is no atrocity which the canine functionary will not commit, if suffered to rule without controul. The hounds will be ill-fed, ill-kept, and soundly flogged, unless the sinister interest of the feeder be checked by the master's eye. Nay, sometimes he flogs them while he feeds them-and if they have not always a belly-full one way, they seldom fail to have it the other." 66 A few words on the breeding of hounds; a matter of supreme importance, as upon success in this all future success depends. Mr. Beckford is surprised that in this article of educating hounds no other country can rival this; and that British hounds themselves degenerate when transported to a foreign soil. We cannot share his wonder. The superiority of our hounds is caused by our free constitution. Squires and hounds are the growth of a limited monarchy. "In thee alone, fair land of liberty, Is bred the perfect hound-in other climes Happy climate, and thrice happy government, under which country-gentlemen are blest with so many privileges; and enjoy a monopoly of hounds and foxes as well as of corn! And you, fortunate men! consider the greatness of these blessings; watch over your lands of higher and lower fertility, and look to the pedigree of your dogs. The rules for breeding are very numerous. We object only to one of Mr. Beckford's: why should he recommend us "to breed from brothers and sisters?" Does he hold with one Locke of Christ Church,' as he was called by 'one' Charles Stuart, that men and dogs have no moral sense? Admitting the former's claim to that attribute, he is not the man to deny the latter's. Witness his discription of the sentimental passion, in that class of the animal fraternity. "Give particular orders to your feeder to watch over the bitches with a cautious eye, and separate such as are going to be proud, before it is too late. The advances they make frequently portend mischief as well as love; and, if not prevented in time, will not fail to set the whole kennel together by the ears, and may occasion the death of your best dogs; care only can prevent it. Mark well the wanton females of thy pack, Oh, dogs, dogs! The observations on the baptism of hounds are of vast importance. Give a dog a bad name,' says the proverb, 'and hang him.' Good names, however; are not so rife as' one might imagine; particularly as it is usual to christen all the whelps of a litter with a name whose initial letter corresponds with that of their putative father, or their maternal parent. This rule is sometimes observed with religious strictness. A baronet of the author's acquaintance, sent three young hounds of one litter to a friend "all their names beginning, as he said, with the letter G.-Gowler, Govial, and Galloper." Let us do the country justice. There is an old story of a baronet who never saw a hound in his life, but who gave at an education dinner, the enigmatical toast of the three R's :-Writing, Reading, and Arithmetic. We should be but too happy to insert the list of names with which Mr. Beckford has presented us. The meaning of many of them is not obvious;--but what of that? We agree with the huntsman, who being asked the name of a young hound, and answering, Lyman, "Lyman," said his master, "why, James, what does Lyman mean?"—" Lord, Sir !" replied James, "what does any thing mean?" Let the reader try this specimen. It is difficult to say upon what principle these names are chosen. We hardly know which to admire most; the epithets bestowed on the dogs, or the dogs' wives. By the time the young hounds are reconciled to the kennel, know the huntsman, and their own names, they should be put into couples, and walked out amongst the sheep; for it is essential that they should be early untaught the horrible propensity to sheep-stealing. If once your dog has tasted the blood of lambs, it becomes extremely difficult to reclaim him. One of the emendatory methods for such a dog is worth noticing; it is, to couple him with a ram. But, as the author observes, "you had better hang him." "A late lord of my (Mr. Beckford's) acquaintance, who had heard of this method, and whose whole pack had been often guilty of killing sheep, determined to punish them, and to that intent put the largest ram he could find into his kennel. The men, with their whips and voices, and the ram with his horns, soon put the whole kennel into confusion and dismay; and the hounds and ram were then left together. Meeting a friend soon after, “Come," says he, "come with me to the kennel, and see what rare sport the ram makes among the hounds; the old fellow lays about him stoutly-egad he trims them -there is not a dog dares look him in the face." His friend, who is a compassionate man, pitied the hounds exceedingly, and asked if he was not afraid that some of them might be spoiled." No, dn them," said he," they deserve it, and let them suffer." On they went -all was quiet-they opened the kennel door, but saw neither ram nor hound. The ram by this time was entirely eaten up, and the hounds, having filled their bellies, were retired to rest." We must now stoop the dogs to a scent. Mr. Beckford thinks it better to enter them at their own game. There is, however, high authority to the contrary, in favour of a trail scent. "I know, says the author, "an old sportsman, a clergyman, who enters his young hounds first at a cat, which he drags along the ground for a mile or two, at the end of which he turns out a badger, first taking care to break his teeth; he takes out about two couple of old hounds along with the young ones, to hold them on. He never enters his young hounds but at vermin; for he says, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." We were certainly not previously aware how incomparably the bull-baiting of the lower orders exceeds in brutality, the "healthy" sports of the country gentleman. The badgers, of course, have no claim to the benefits of Mr. Martin's bills. "When young hounds begin to love a scent, it may be of use to turn out a badger, (or sometimes a cat,) before them; you will then be able to discover what improvement they make. I mention a badger, in a supposition that young foxes cannot so well be spared; besides, the badger being a slower animal, he may easily be followed, and driven the way you choose he should run. You should give him (the badger) a great deal of law, and you will do well to break his teeth." It is amusing after this, to meet with the following passage; but so accomplished a sportsman is bound to evince a touch of sentiment, among his other perfections. "Huntsmen and whippers-in are seldom so unlucky as to have your feelings; yet custom, which authorises them to flog hounds (your hounds) unmercifully, does not do away the barbarity of it. A gentleman seeing a girl skinning eels alive, asked her, if it was not very cruel? Oh not at all, sir, replied the girl, they be used to it.” If martern cats are within reach it is advised to enter young hounds in covers which they frequent. The martern cat, being a small animal, and running the thickest brakes it can find, teaches the hounds to run cover, and is therefore of great use. The agility of this little animal is astonishing. Though it frequently falls from a tree in the midst of a whole pack of hounds, there are few instances of a martern's being caught by them in that situation. Before we touch on the subject of hunting, we will say a word about scent. The inquiry is involved in obscurity, and Mr. Beckford's modesty induces him to put up with the praise (no small one) of a knowledge of the phenomena without pretending an acquaintance with their causes. Hoc sum contentus, he says, in the language of Cicero, quod etiam si quo quidque fiat ignorem, quid fiat intelligo. The passage on this subject in Somervile is so striking, that we select it in preference to Mr. Beckford's prose. 'Tis a pity so much obscurity, arising from the ungrammatical structure of the sentence, should disfigure the graphical account of the exhalations from the fox's hide. The badness of the physiology is more pardonable than the defective syntax. The passage, however, has great merit, and if Priscian can be appeased, we are silent. "Should some more curious sportsman here enquire, Of tracing, step by step, or man or brute? What guide invisible points out their way, O'er the dark marsh, bleak hill, and sandy plain? |