CHAPTER XI KENNELS AND STABLES There can be no more important kind of information than the exact knowledge of a man's own country; and for this, as well as for more general reasons of pleasure and advantage, hunting with dogs and other kinds of sports should be pursued by the young.'-PLATO, Laws (Jowett), vol. v. p. 334. QUEEN ANNE established the kennels on their present site at Ascot. She inherited her father's love of hunting, who, as Duke of York, was if anything over-fond of it. Pepys more than once complains of the routine Admiralty business falling into arrears owing to the Lord High Admiral being out hunting. Swift speaks of her hunting in burning July weather in a calash-a sort of gig-for she did not ride much latterly, and in order to get about and see the hunt she was always having new rides cut and bogs drained. We horsemen owe much of the pleasure of the October forest hunting about Swinley and Bagshot to Queen Anne. Kennel lameness was the great scourge of the Ascot kennel in the earlier years of this century. Sharpe and the whips, described rather mildly as kind and civil' men by a writer in the Sporting Magazine' of 1814, appear to have acknowledged themselves powerless to deal with it.' George IV. thought otherwise. Brighton, in his opinion, was the panacea for all things hurtful, and for a year or two he sent Sharpe there with the hounds for sea-bathing, their 1 The central figure in the plate opposite is G. Sharpe, huntsman; the cthers are C. Davis, J. Mandeville, and J. Freeman. |