COURSING. 47 



night before the meeting, driven (says the same Prospectus) 

 " into the south-east corner, where four large pens or 

 prisons have been made of wire and brattice cloth, these 

 pens having by artificial means been made to look like 

 young coverts." 



This class of coursing receives the support of so many 

 gentlemen of position that one feels bound to think it 

 cannot possibly be so bad in practice as it looks in print; 

 and I have to acknowledge that I have never witnessed 

 such coursing, and I do not care if I never do, for no 

 amount of support, no matter if it is given by the highest 

 in the land, can ever make it better than a distorted imita- 

 tion and a mere caricature of the ancient and noble sport, 

 thus travestied for purposes of gate money and gambling. 

 It is found profitable at these places to offer very high 

 stakes to be run for, and these secure large entries and 

 the attendance of multitudes of onlookers, the majority 

 of whom probably know nothing of natural coursing, and a 

 large section of whom consist of the " sharps " and " flats " 

 who hang on to the skirts of modern sport, and to whom 

 life without betting would be insipid. The promoters of 

 coursing boxed hares say : " The advantages this descrip- 

 tion of coursing possesses over that in an open country 

 is very great; there is no tramping after hares, but, 

 on the contrary, trials can be secured as fast as the 

 judge can decide upon them." Let the reader contrast 

 that with the opinion of one of our greatest modern 

 coursers, who was, as well as a sportsman, a gentleman 

 and a scholar : " Coursing, more than any of the other 

 laborious diversions of rural life, while it ministers to our 

 moderate sensual enjoyment, admits also, during the 



