368 SPORT IN EUROPE 



the trap be fixed, the otter will invariably gnaw off his foot sooner 

 than be captured alive. 



Coursing still leads a struggling existence, but bad opinion of the 

 sport seems to have taken hold of the mind of the British public. 

 It seems a short time since coursing was in full swing 

 at Kempton Park, and hares frolicked round the late 

 Mr. Hyde's house in the Park as plentifully as cats in Berkeley 

 Square ; but public interest in the sport has waned and died out. 

 Thinking it over, and wondering why coursing should have so 

 degenerated and lost its hold on a sporting community, I am forced 

 to the conviction that the public has gradually become disgusted 

 and annoyed, believing that the only animal in the contest that occa- 

 sionally was "trying" was the hare, and this was the only animal 

 the public couldn't back ! 



There is still one meeting held each year which attracts consider- 

 able attention, and leads to a large quantity of betting, when all the 

 best greyhounds in the kingdom gather to compete 



^ for the coveted Blue Ribbon of the Do^s' Derby. 



Cup. ^^ ^ 



The Waterloo Cup (for such it is named) is run for 

 at Redcar, near Liverpool, in the early spring ; but it must be ad- 

 mitted by the greatest coursing enthusiasts that the "game" is not 

 what it was. There is no great dinner on the night of the draw, 

 where several hundred sportsmen assemble ; there is no Greenall to 

 rise and lay his thousands to fifteen ; and there is no Colonel North 

 to back his dog to win him a fortune. 



The gun has much to answer for, and, despite its many advantages, 

 I am inclined to think that the world would have been brighter and 



