:28 COURSING THE HARE 



booklet of his own poems, which had been published 

 by subscription amongst his neighbours. 



A small covering of snow, two or three inches or 

 less, or an overnight frost which has hardly disap- 

 peared, are both greatly in favour of the hare, whose 

 rough pads are much better adapted to a slippery 

 surface than the smooth feet of a greyhound ; and this 

 reminds me that on two consecutive Saturdays in 

 January 1883 I saw seven-and-twenty courses run 

 without a single hare being killed. This happened at 

 Broomshields, an old manorial estate which lies at a 

 high altitude in the extreme west of the county of 

 Durham, and is mostly in rough pasture, of much the 

 same description as that we used to course over at 

 the High Law. Coursing readers will remember that 

 1883 was about the zenith of the enclosed coursing 

 meetings, and at that time there were monthly fixtures 

 at Gosforth Park, where stakes of all sorts and sizes 

 were run, and every class of greyhounds catered for. 

 Well, Broomshields is quite in the wilds, and at least 

 thirty-five miles from Gosforth Park ; but so strong was 

 the coursing spirit in the county of Durham just then 

 that there were little meetings on every estate (which 

 acted as trials for Gosforth), and greyhounds kept in 

 every village. Many of these were the property of 

 innkeepers, small tradesmen, and even mmers (a 



