UNCERTAINTY OF COURSING 173 



might have passed the leading greyhound and turned the hare. 

 I have seen uncommonly bad judges under the above circum- 

 stances count this as a go-by and a turn, and use it so in their 

 decision. The lookers-on often cry out at it as a go-by, but 

 not being close to the dogs their ignorance may be pardoned. 

 There is with the existing judges and juries a glorious un- 

 certainty in coursing as in the law, equally encouraging to the 

 proprietor of a bad cause or a bad greyhound ; and I am quite 

 sure that very many courses have been given to me to which I 

 was in no way entitled, and an equal number assigned against 

 me which I had decidedly won; and it is that fact that has 

 ever rendered me of the opinion that a man need not have the 

 best greyhound to come off the victor. During my experience 

 I have seen queer things done. I saw a greyhound of Mr. 

 William Lawrence's, at a meeting near Cheltenham, put in, I 

 think, four times for undecided courses, each course of which 

 Mr. Lawrence won, till by a deep fallow and an incompetent 

 hare, a chance was afforded of deciding the course against him. 

 An infinity of unjust sentences are passed during the season, 

 and if one can do so, the charitable way of accounting for them 

 is, the great ignorance in the rules of coursing in the judges. 



Suppose two greyhounds are slipped at a bad hare, and one 

 of them shows a vast superiority of speed over the other in the 

 run up, and first two or three turns while the hare is on her 

 speed and strong, then after that if the hare loses her speed and 

 strength, and dodges the dogs round a bush, or in and out a 

 bundle of hurdles leaned against a wall, as I once saw, and the 

 other dog dodges the self-turned hare the most round and round 

 a space not exceeding forty yards, all that, if it lasted for ten 

 or twenty minutes, would not, and should not count over the 

 decided superiority and work when the dogs were at the top of 

 their speed, and obliged to turn the hare instead of the hare 

 turning herself. There is no field where a dog more requires 

 the presence of his master than in a coursing field, in order to 

 see fair play. I saw a greyhound of mine at the Greenway 

 Meeting, in slips with a dog of Sir J. Bosworth's, the attendant 



