PUBLIC COURSING 167 



and, as a matter of fact, the percentage of kills was 

 as a rule much smaller at the enclosures than in the 

 open ; but there were many weak points about the 

 game — speed was unduly served ; welching, waiting, 

 or lurching tactics were encouraged in any greyhound 

 who had a soft spot in his composition ; and, worst 

 of all, betting increased tenfold, and the meetings 

 therefore attracted scores of men who knew nothing 

 about coursing, and cared nothing, but who went 

 to the enclosures solely with a view to winning money, 

 their presence being in direct opposition to the best 

 interests of the sport. 



The field chosen for an enclosure was large and 

 roomy, and such long slips were given that puss 

 always had a fair chance. At the farthest end of the 

 ground there was a line of escapes, and this caused 

 the small mortality in hares to which I referred just 

 now. It happened, too, if hares were put down two 

 or three weeks before they were wanted, and well fed 

 with hard meat, that they were invariably able to show 

 their full powers, and then- unless bad management 

 intervened — it was quite as fair, in many ways, as 

 open coursing. Its chief drawback lay in the fact 

 that the hares, knowing where the escapes were, in 

 nineteen cases out of twenty worked forward, and thus, 

 if one dog could command his opponent for speed. 



