I3S COURSTNG riTE HARE 



a covert within reasonable reaeh. Since Lord Orford's 

 time breeding has been the careful study of many good 

 coursers, and the keynote to the modern greyhound 

 was supplied by King Cob, bred in 1839 by Captain 

 Daintree, whose name figures times without number 

 in the pedigrees of all the celebrities of recent years. 

 I expect it would be almost impossible to find a good 

 modern greyhound who has not some strain of King 

 Cob in his veins ; and in certain cases, if the pedigree 

 were extended out to eleven generations or so, it would 

 l)e found that the name of the Norfolk celebrity ap- 

 peared over fifty times. Whether King Cob and his 

 contemporaries were as fast as their descendants of 

 to-day is open to doubt ; but that they were e([ually 

 handsome and as much at home behind a liare is 

 pretty well certain, not only from the old pictures and 

 prints in existence, but from the fact tliat at one time 

 even greater law was allowed in tlie slip than has lately 

 been the fashion. 



The Ashdown Park Club, in Berkshire, founded in 

 the year 1780 by the then Lord Craven, was the first 

 rival which Swaffham had, though, as this was long 

 before the railway era, it is quite certain that it drew 

 upon an entirely different set of kennels. The Swaif- 

 ham ground is mostly enclosed arable, with a little 

 grass, and very level ; but at Ashdown the coursing 



