The hounds' kennel should be ten fathoms in length and five in breadth, if there be many hounds. And there should be one door in front and one behind, and a fair green, where the sun shineth all day from morning till eve, and that green should be closed about with a paling or with a wall of earth or of stone of the same length and breadth as the hounds' kennel is. And the hinder door of the kennel should always be open so that the hounds may go out to play when they like, for it is a great liking to the hounds when they may go in and out at their pleasure, for the mange comes to them later.[171] In the kennel should be pitched small stones wrapped about with straw of the hounds' litter, unto the number of six stones, that the hounds might piss against them. Also a kennel should have a gutter or two whereby all the piss of the hounds and all the other water may run out that none remains in the kennel. The kennel should also be in a low house, and not in a solere (an upper chamber), but there should be a loft above, so that it might be warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and always by night and by day I would that some child lie or be in the kennel with the hounds to keep them from fighting. Also in the kennel should be a chimney to warm the hounds when they are cold or when they are wet with rain or from passing and swimming over rivers. And also he should be taught to spin horse hair to make couples for the hounds, which should be made of a horse tail or a mare's tail, for they are best and last longer than if they were of hemp or of wool. And the length of the hounds' couples between the hounds should be a foot, and the rope of a limer three fathoms and a half, be he ever so wise a limer it sufficeth. _The which rope should be made of leather of a horse skin well tawed._ [171] They are not likely to get the mange so soon. [Illustration: THE KENNEL AND KENNELMEN (From MS. f. fr. 616, _Bib. Nat_., Paris)] CHAPTER XXI HOW THE HOUNDS SHOULD BE LED OUT TO SCOMBRE Also I will teach[172] the child to lead out the hounds to scombre twice in the day in the morning and in the evening, so that the sun be up, especially in winter. Then should he let them run and play long in a fair meadow in the sun, and then comb every hound after the other, and wipe them with a great wisp of straw, and thus he shall do every morning. And then shall he lead them into some fair place there where tender grass grows as corn and other things, that therewith they may feed them (selves) as it is medicine for them, for sometimes hounds are sick and with the grass that they eat they void and heal themselves. [172] The first four words are omitted in our MS., but they are in the Shirley MS. and in others, and in G. de F. CHAPTER XXII HOW A HUNTER'S HORN SHOULD BE DRIVEN