36 DOMESTICATED HUXTIXG-DOGS. 



tliose who indulge in it take care to select the best blood which is 

 to be obtained, and readily send two or three hundred miles for it. 

 Hence, locality has now little to do with it, and throughout Great 

 Britain and Ireland the public greyhound is the same animal. 

 Newmarket, which used to be the grand centre of the coursing 

 world, is now fallen from its high position, and neither produces 

 first-class dogs, nor coursing meetings of a corresponding character. 

 Scotland, on the other hand, which formerly had its own breed of 

 smooth greyhounds, has lately taken up the mantle fallen from the 

 shoulders of Newmarket, and has not only usurped her breed of 

 dogs, but has established most numerously supported meetings in 

 various localities. Almost all her modern strains are thence de- 

 scended, but some are also dependent upon old Lancashire blood, 

 as, for example, Mr. Borron's " Bluelight " strain, and Mr. Wilson's 

 " King Lear." It is true that there is an infusion of old Scotch 

 blood in nearly all of these dogs, but that of the south and midland 

 district greatly preponderates ; as, for instance, Mr. Gibson's " Sam," 

 " Jacobite," and " Caledonian ; " Mr. Wilson's " King Lear," and 

 sisters; the various descendants of " Japhet," "Baron," and "Ilughie 

 Graham," as well as of Sir James Boswell's " Jason," and Mr. 

 Sharj)e's " Monarch ; '' all of southern descent. Lancashire has still 

 some strains peculiar to herself, which have sufiered no intermixture 

 for many years, and the same may be said of the Yorkshire blood ; 

 but these are exceptions to the general rule, for ninete-nths of the 

 greyhounds in these districts are now crossed with Scotch or New- 

 market blood, through " King Cob," or "Jason," or some of their 

 descendants. Indeed, it is now extremely rare to meet with any 



