COURSING COMPANY 171 



who are supposed to be likely to win, about four in the morn- 

 ing, a heavy " stopping ball, 1 ' made after the suet dumplings 

 often set down before little boys at school, to be eaten first by 

 way of antidote to mutton. The little boys' appetite and the 

 greyhounds' wind are alike choked by this indissoluble pill, if 

 it can be administered. I advise, therefore, all coursers to have 

 a lock-up place for their dogs, with no opening through which 

 a dose of the slows can pass. The dinner hour approaches ; 

 every bedroom in the inn is taken, and the long room used for 

 public balls is laid out with an extensive table for dinner; 

 every soul is in right good humour, for every man is fond of 

 his dog, and thinks him safe to win. The judge dines there ; 

 and it is curious to hear the civil and affectionate inquiries 

 after his family made by every courser that has a dog in the 

 stakes ; and as to wine ! there is not a man present who does 

 not ask the judge to drink with him forty times over. Pens 

 and ink come with the dessert ; the ink in a wine-glass is pre- 

 cisely the colour of port ; bets are made ; books are produced, 

 and the young chaps of the party inclined for fun, wait till 

 some old courser offers to take the odds against his dog, and at 

 once offer to bet even that he wins. The old courser's rage at 

 their thus spoiling his market is the only symptom of ill-will 

 that is on the first day permitted to appear. On the second 

 day one-half of the company during dinner are sulky, and 

 scarcely speak to the other half: these are the men whose dogs 

 have been beaten. The judge's family by the offended half of 

 the party are supposed to be in rude health, or are forgotten ; 

 they seem to deem that the judge is no longer dry, for the 

 invitations to drink wine have fallen off in a corresponding 

 degree. Bets are not made so freely as before ; and men, who 

 decline proffered wagers, mutter something about not " knowing 

 what they are doing." 



The third day arrives ; the dinner party has considerably 

 decreased, the judge appears with a black eye, is cut by all save 

 three or four who are amazingly fond of him, and these are the 

 winners of the stakes. 



