these recourse was had to the Backsets, which were slipped in 

 the face of the oncoming animal, " to the end they may more 

 amase him." This does not sound very sporting, but our author 

 assures us that a red deer was so powerful that it sometimes took 

 four or five brace of greyhounds to pull him down. Coursing the 

 hare was set down as the nobler pastime. As in the present day, 

 so in Elizabethan England, it was not the kill that determined the 

 merit of a greyhound, but " he that giveth most Cotes, or most 

 turnings, winneth the wager." At modern coursing meetings, if 

 two hounds are alike in colour, one has to wear a red, the other a 

 white collar, in order that the judge may be able to distinguish. 

 Turbervile remarks: " For the better decidyng of all these questions, 

 if it be a solempne assembly, they use to appoynt Judges whiche 

 are expert in coursing, and shall stande on the hilles sides whether 

 they perceyue the Hare will bende, to marke whiche dogge doeth 

 best, and to give judgement thereof accordingly : some use when 

 their Greyhoundes be both of a colour to binde a handkerchief 

 aboute one of theyre neckes for a difference. But if it were my 

 Dogge he shoulde not weare the handkerchef, for I coulde never 

 yet see any dogge win the course which ware the handkerchef. 

 And it standeth to good reason that he whiche wareth the hand- 

 kerchef should be combred therewith, both bycause it gathereth 

 winde, and also bycause it doth parteley stoppe a dogges breath." 

 Strange that the expedient of making both wear different coloured 

 handkerchiefs was not devised until a later date. 



