COURSING. 41 



by sixty-four Greyhounds,, nominated by sixty-four coursers, 

 English, Scotch, and Irish. 



The next great event in coursing annals was the estab- 

 lishment of the National Coursing Club in 1858, which 

 began its work by formulating a code of laws for the 

 regulation of coursing meetings and the guidance of 

 judges that at once approved themselves to the great 

 body of coursing men. The laws of the Club are now 

 the laws of the leash, not at home only, but in the Greater 

 Britain beyond the seas, and wherever coursing has taken 

 root, as it has most firmly with our brethren in Cali- 

 fornia, and still more so with our fellow countrymen in 

 Australia. 



Long before the establishment of the National Coursing 

 Club causes were at work strengthening the foundations of 

 this national sport and widely extending its influence and 

 popularity, and these, in fact, made the Club a necessity. 



The old clubs were, in accordance with the spirit of the 

 times, rigidly exclusive. The votaries of the leash of that 

 period determined that, in coursing at least, " the toe of 

 the peasant should not come so near the heel of the 

 courtier as to gall his kibe/ ; and so we find that no dog 

 was permitted to run at a meeting which was not the 

 property of a member, or of someone taken to the meeting 

 by a member. 



But the giant Democracy, having given many uneasy 

 turns in his long sleep, was now rubbing his eyes and 

 stirring in earnest. The days of railways came in with 

 the Waterloo Cup the first, and still the chief, of open 

 coursing meetings and the dawn of a really free and 

 independent Press was visible. 



