114 COURSING THE HARE 



means to send their dogs about, and to run them 

 for stake money, instead of keeping them for home 

 use. 



The smaller and poorer squires and many of the 

 farmers still kept up their kennels for home sport 

 only, and until the pernicious Hares and Rabbits 

 Act was passed these gentry continued to enjoy their 

 coursing in a simple and homely fashion. 



Those who lived in the more remote districts 

 have been, naturally enough, the last to adopt public 

 coursing ; but even in some of these districts, where 

 the squire used to grant a day's leave to his tenants 

 and their friends, the day, originally quite private, with 

 no stake money allowed, became gradually more and 

 more public, until at last it assumed the proportions 

 of a public coursing, and though, perhaps, still con- 

 fined to dogs nominated by the tenants, nevertheless 

 brought together a crowd of the neighbouring public, 

 and did not escape the notice of the reporter for the 

 local newspaper. This, however, is an age of rush- 

 ing into print, and we have seen in a mining district 

 a six-dog stake at £^\ apiece which produced a report 

 of a quarter of a column ! 



Private coursers of the old type were, in nineteen 

 cases out of twenty, landowners, or tenant-farmers who 

 had leave to course, the twentieth case being that of 



