818 



ANNUAL REGISTER. 



that some criterion could be adopt- 

 ed, by wIhc}i the certainty of supe- 

 riority in speed could be fairly as- 

 certained ; -vvhcn, after a variety of 

 suggestions and propositions from 

 one quarter to anotlier without suc- 

 cess, the following circumstance 

 accidentally took place ; aHording 

 some rays of information upon what 

 was previously considered a matter 

 of the greatest uncertainty. — 



In the month of December, 1800, 

 a match was to have been run over 

 Doncaster course, for one hundred 

 guineas, but one of the horses hav- 

 JBg been drawn, a mare started 

 alone, that by running the ground 

 she might insure the wager: when 

 having run about one mile of the 

 four, she was accompanied by a 

 greyhound bitch, who joined her 

 from the side of the course, and, 

 cmulatively entering into compel i- 

 tion, continued to race with (he 

 mare the other three miles, keeping 

 nearly head and head, alfording an 

 excellent treat to the held, by the 

 energetic exertions of each. At 

 passing the distance, live to four was 

 betted in favour of the greyhound : 

 when parallel with the stand, it was 

 even betting, and any one might 

 have taken his choice for five or 

 ten ; the mare, however, had the 

 advantage by a head at the termi- 

 nation. 



The invincible ardour and deter- 

 mined progress of the greyhound is 

 not easily to be restrained by any 

 intervening obstacles it is possible to 

 surmount, or any difhculties that 

 can, by the most indefatigable per- 

 severance, be overcome ; in confir- 

 Biation of which a volume of fafts 

 might be adduced, but few will suf- 

 fice. Early in life, the writer being 

 upon a visit at Wortingwood farm, 

 •near Basingstoke, in Hampshire, 



and walking over the fields with ati 

 uncle, a hare was found sitting upon 

 the bank of the fence, but previous 

 to her being turned out of her form, 

 it was thought necessary to use some 

 precaution that she might be pre- 

 vented from too easily gaining a co- 

 vert not far from the scene of action. 

 That this might be the better etfe(5t- 

 ed, the writer was fixed in an open 

 gap of the hedge (leading direttly 

 to the covert), Mith a strif;t injunc- 

 tion to stop the hare if she came 

 that way. The hare, however, 

 upon being put up, made immedi- 

 ately for the well-known gap, and 

 passing between the legs of the 

 writer, was instantaneously follow- 

 ed bv the greyhound at his utmost 

 speed ; whose back coming into con- 

 tact with the fork of the unfortu- 

 nate guard, gave him an ele6trical 

 elevation of four or five feet above 

 the ground, which he had but just 

 recovered from, when he had to 

 encounter a severe llagellation from 

 an enraged relative for the loss of 

 the hare. 



Some few years since, a grey- 

 hound, named Kajah, the properfy 

 of a Mr. Knowles, in the county of 

 Hertford, having supported a very 

 long course, and turned the hare at 

 least a dozen times, killed her single- 

 handed, but was so completely ex- 

 hausted, that he lay panting by her 

 side, seemingly unable to rise. In 

 this situation he was observed by 

 two countrymen, and the master not 

 coming up, oi- being in sight, they 

 determined to secure the hare ; but, 

 upon getting near, with an intent to 

 seize her, the greyhound suddenly 

 sprung up, took the hare in his 

 mouth, and set off the way he came, 

 the fellows pursuing with sticks and 

 stones ; w hen meeting his master, 

 who had followed the course, ha 



laid 



