COURSING. "773 



culty, the}^ had not been out of the kennel for some weeks 

 before, and were so riotous that they ran everything they 

 saw ; the chase of sheep, cur-dogs, and birds of all sorts, as 

 well as hares and deer, had been his and their amusement all 

 the way home ; however, only one dog was lost : and his 

 answer to his master's question, of what he thought of the 

 hounds, was appropriate enough, as he replied, " they could 

 not fail being good hounds, for they would hunt anything'' 

 Hare-hunting ends on the 27th day of February. 



COURSING. 



The pastime of coursing is of great antiquity, and seems 

 to have been conducted in a similar manner to that practised 

 at the present day. Arrian, an author who flourished a. d 

 150, wrote a treatise on the subject, and minutely described 

 the sport. It was a practice among the most wealthy Gauls 

 to employ men to find hares in their seats, and then return 

 to their employers with tidings of the number they had 

 found. These sportsmen mounted their horses, and, followed 

 by their greyhounds, proceeded to course them ; and never 

 more than a couple were slipped at a time, and these were 

 not laid on too close to the hare, because, although possessing 

 great swiftness, yet when first started, she is so frightened by 

 the hallooing, and by the closeness and speed of the grey- 

 hounds, that it frequently so overcomes her with fear, that 

 she is unable to maintain a lengthened course, and is killed 

 without afibrding any diversion. Finding this to be the case, 

 hares were allowed, by judicious sportsmen, to run some dis- 

 tance from their forms before the dogs were permitted to 

 follow. Arrian says, the best hares were those found in 

 open and exposed localites. These did not immediately try 

 to avoid the danger by making the best of their way to 

 woods and other sheltered situations, but whilst contending 



