BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



' The morning finds us at Lynn's once more, and the cards 

 of the day sliow that Master IM'Grath has been drawn with 

 Borealis. The latter has been winning a good stake at Lytham, 

 but " the talent " have taken her measure well, as 25 to 1 

 can be got about her for the Cup, and it is only 6 to 1 against 

 the black. All is life and activity among the coursers. They 

 are buttoning on leggings, and lighting pipes, and driving 

 bargains with hansoms and coaches, into which they mount, 

 looking like very jolly Cromwellian pike-men, with their long 

 mahogany-coloured leaping poles. The route lies principally 

 by the dock side, and its dusky forest of masts, till we strike 

 rather more inland at Formby, where the greyhound trainers 

 keep their charges. Seven or eight miles bring us within sight 

 of the Altcar plains at last. On the left are interminable sand 

 banks, tenanted by coneys and vitriol works ; while ditches 

 of all degrees, high mounds, and engine houses help to break 

 the dreary Altcar dead level of grass and fallows, which look 

 as if they had merely been pared. Be that as it may, they are 

 full of " fur," and during one portion of the meeting. Hard 

 Lines, Mr. J. Hole's black dog, got among a wandering troop 

 of nearly a hundred hares, and didn't know what it meant. 

 There are a few trees, and there is a conventicle-looking church 

 in the distance, but even when the sun is out, it looks quite a 

 joyless land, inhabited by the descendants of Mat o' the Marsh. 



' There is life enough at the North End Farm, where the 

 carriages make their halt, and the official card-seller sets up 

 his basket under the lee of a barn. He is wise in his generation, 

 as if he once faced the open there would be a rush at him, and, 

 like good card-sellers before him, he might be pressed into the 

 ditch. The trainers are here in great force, each with his 

 champion in hand, or snugly ensconced in a dog-van. Specu- 

 lation (late Red Robin) occupies the front seat of a cab, and a 

 large wisp of straw is spread artistically over the front window, 

 for fear any minute draught may visit his honoured head too 

 roughly. Alas ! it is of no avail, as India Rubber challenges 

 him to the slips ere two hours more are over, and wins a^good 



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