COURSING IN ENGLAND.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7252, 7 March 1889, Page 2

COURSING IN ENGLAND.

SPORTING AND DRAMATIC. It is a somewhat curious coincidence that in a sporting paper of a recent date, there should have appeared, side by side, an account of a successful sale of greyhounds, and a letter from Mr W. H. HopeJohnstone lamenting the decadence of coursing. As a sport for country gentlemen and farmers, coursing, haa reached a green old age, and in ancient times the aquire who sat for his picture as olten as not rested one hand on tbehead of a greyhound, unless he happened to be a foxhunter, and was painted with his hounds. At a time when a season in London was not a regular part of the squire's enjoyment, it is easy to understand how greatly the pleasures of a country life were enhanced by coursing. Neither shooting nor hunting was practicable every day ; nor perhaps did everyone care about those pursuits, but in any case friends and neighbours met, and at no cost, and without much preparation, could enjoy themselves by coursing on any afternoon on which they choae to foregather. Tradition tells us that Shakespere was a courser, and may possibly have seen the fallow dog, concerning which Slender questions Master Page in " The Merry Wives, of Windsor," "outrun." But one may go further back still for early coursing history, as Edmund de Langley was an admirer of it, and considered fallow, red, and black the best colours for greyhounds. Just, however, as early masters of foxhounds carried out their sport unfettered by the many rules now necessarily observed, and aa football was, in its early days, a game of marvellous simplicity, ao was coursing a sport for a long time untrammelled by any other laws than those which were of local force. It was not till the time of Queen Bess that the first code was drawn up, and signed by the Duke of Norfolk and other celebrities. Our forefathers, however, could not have learned much from us in the way of sport, for the Duke of Norfolk's rules are marked by great) knowledge, and are the basis of the laws in operation at the present day ; from the time that dogs came into the hands of the •' fewterer," or, as we call him now, the slipoer, until the course was finished, the procedure bore a strong resemblance to what is now seen. Gervase Markham gives a copy of the original rules, and as it is often supposed that our foxhounds of to-day are speedier than those followed by the Elizabethan sportsmen, it is noteworthy that the greater amount of start then allowed to the hare—" twelve score law " —appears to suggest one of two things: either that our greyhounds Are not much faster than those of Elizabeth's day, or else that hares have become slower. Under this earliest code, of rules the hare-finder was to give " three sohows before he put her from the lear, to make the greyhounds gaze and attend her rising," That coursing was not even then carried out in strict privacy seems probable, for one of the rules forbids any horseman or footman to approach within forty yards of the fewterer "on pain of disgrace," which penalty also attached to anyone riding over a dog. Public coursing Is not much more than half a century old, yet between it and the coursing on old-fashioned lines there is admittedly a grcab difference—aa great, in fact, as between the earliest horse race and the Derby of 1888. Hundreds, or possibly thousands, now interest themselves in coursing a/fairs whore tens formerly gave a thought to the matter; but the interest is of much the same kind as that taken in racing by a certain -proportion of the spectators on every racecourse. With coursing now the medium of "heavy speculation," as betting is euphemistically termed, it can scarcely be wondered at that the interest is often a purely pecuniary one, or that many of those who atteud coursing meetings know as much about a greyhound as do some horse-racing persons about the points of a racehorse. A crowd of bookmakers may be exceedingly upright; persons, and to-day they are certainly necessary to the success of a racing or coursing meeting; but they do not tend to bring into greater prominence the sporting side of the amusement. " I have loved the sport of coursiag ao well," wrote Sir Walter Scott to Mr Thomas Goodlake, in connection with the " Last Words of Bonny Heck," " and pursued it so keenly for several years, that I would with pleasure have done anything in my power to add to your collection on the subject. But I have long laid aside the amusement, and still longer renounced the poetical pen which ought to have celebrated it; and I could only send you the lament of an old man, and the enumeration of the number of horses and dogs which have been long laid under the sod." The feeling underlying these words is suggestive of a far deeper love for coursing as a sport than can be indicated by any price a bookmaker can offer. To the transcription of the " Last Words of Bonny Heck," which Sir Walter Scott sent his friend, he added a story concerning a certain Balchristy. coursing club, whose members, *' elderly social men," were satisfied with a moderate allowance of sport, which they regarded as an introduction to a jovial evening. A certain stout hare, it appears, had her form in a certain field, and for two seasons afforded the Balchristy gentlemen just as much coursing as they needed, but always escaped with her life by disappearing through a small gap in an enclosure. But at last the cunning " sportsman" turned up in the shape of a "fellow wht> attended the hunt and nefariously thrust his plaid or greatcoat into the gap I have mentioned," with thft result that when poor pus 3 made lier way to the well-known opening retreat was cut off, and she was, in the janguage of the dying Desdemona, " basely—basely murdered." This was the turning point in the Balchristy Club. "They either found no hares, or such as afforded a halloo and squeak only, and the club died out. The publican at whose house the coursing cinners took place naturally lamented the dissolution of the club, and bore no goodwill to him of nefarious deeds, and when, on being asked some time afterwards what had become of the individual in question, aaswered, 'He is dead, air, and his soul kens this day whether the hare of Balchristy got fair play or not. , " In common with many more, Mr HopeJohnstone regard* the Ground Game Act aa responsible for the decay of many an open meeting, and he instances the case of Newmarket in 1885, "wrhen two hours were spent in finding a hare to enable ft brace of dog 3 to run_off a tie. This scarcity of hares is a common experience, and several packs of rharriers have of late years been giveiv up for the same reason. We have no desire to say harsh things of coursing trapped hares in inclosed grounds —from a betting point of view it is a valuable innovation; time is saved,' and a proper supply of bates is- guaranteed; yet it is a sort of drawing-room sport after all, and is very like what hunting would be were it carried-on after the manner of the late Alexandra Palace drag hunt, or what shooting would be were pheasants, partridges, harts, and rabbits released from traps or baskets. It is & pis alter, but it does not allow the hare to make the most of her wiliness, as in the case of the

Balchristy specimen, except that when released from the pen it, of course, makes at once for the opening at the end. It may be true, as Mr Hope-Johnetone avers, that " The Waterloo Cup itself fail* to excite the same interest as formerly, while the Purse and Plate have degenerated into a farce ;' but the prices paia for greyhounds at the recent sale at Rymill's repository would scarcely lead one to believe that coursing is on the wane. With praiseworthy thoroughness Colonel North is offering at the shrine of sport some proportion of his Nitrate gains, and, besides keeping the Mid Kent etaghounds in princely style, is getting together a strong kennel of greyhounds. The gallant colonel was content to pay 850 guineas for Fullerton, and in so doing bought, we believe, the highest Sriced puppy on record; while for Al iss lendyne, who divided the Waterloo Cup In 1880, and won it in 1838, the same purchaser gave 510 guineas. Mr Dent, of Short ITlatt, Northumberland, has for some time been known as a successful owner and trainer of greyhounds: and if, as rumour has It, he will supervise the training of Colonel North's kennel, it ma/ be some time ere his hand forgets its cunning, though he has passed his dogs over to the master of the Mid-Kent Staghounds in exchange for what must be regarded as a very good consideration. It ia, however, satisfactory to find that such long prices are paid for animals of all kinds suitable for breeding, and it is fortunate for the several breeds that rich men take sufficient interest in breeding to pay such sums as Colonel North gave for Miss Glendyne. # As our readers are aware, efforts are being made to secure a close time for hares, though ib is by no means certain that this will of itself increase the supply of thorn, for the slaughter may be all the brisker when the period of exemption Is past and gone. It will at any rate be a step in Ihe right direction ; while coursing iv inclosed grounds may, perhaps, serve to keep alive the taste for the sport until the successful holding of open meetings becomes more easy of accomplishment than, from all accounts, it is at present.