The Brampton Coursing Meeting. 117 



price (60 guineas) at the sale. This colour-lot fell in 

 the Cauld Kail litter on a 29-inch dog, which was 

 tried to be the best of the half-dozen at Brougham, 

 and was no manner of use at the Altcar Club. His 

 own brother, Test Act, divided the Sefton Stakes with 

 Grey Steel at this meeting, and this was the last time 

 that Mr. Thompson ran a dog in public. When we 

 were at Farlam Hall that autumn, his Rather Im- 

 proved saplings from Tirzah were duly ushered in 

 after dinner for inspection, and they were certainly, 

 as he said, " true greyhounds to the eye." He left 

 word for his friends, as he passed through London 

 about Christmas time, that he would see them on his 

 return from Nice ; but it was ordered otherwise, and 

 when we entered Lynn's on the Waterloo Tuesday, we 

 learnt the news of his death. He lies not on " the 

 fair hill-s/de," but far away on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, and he will always be remembered as 

 the kindest-hearted of men, and one of those genuine 

 coursers who could bear both defeat and victory. 



The coursing is a very great feature of the Bramp- 

 ton year. It was nearly a third of a century since we 

 had been at it, and then it was merely an eight-dog 

 stake, and run off near Naworth Gate. We had good 

 reason to remember it, as it was the first bit of report- 

 ing which we had ever tried. A rough dog from 

 Little Corby won it, which " had trained itsel'," and 

 the owner, to his great amazement, got a five-pound 

 note for it the next week, and attributed it in a 

 measure to the " blazing report" in the paper. A 

 week before thirty shillings would have parted them. 

 Now the venue is shifted to Askerton, some five 

 miles over country on the Bewcastle side. Kingwater 

 is in this district, and it was at a farmhouse there 

 that the celebrated flyer of that name was walked. 

 Coursing is quite a Cumberland weakness ; but we 

 met a couple of farmers en route, one of whom de- 

 clared that he preferred the harriers, and would only 



