SOME MEMORABLE MATCHES 319 



undertook for a wager to ride a blind horse round 

 Sheerness race-course, without guiding the reins 

 with his hands. This he performed, to the no 

 small amusement of the spectators, by cutting 

 the reins asunder, and fastening the several parts 

 to his feet in the stirrups.' The simple-minded 

 Earl of Glasgow, who is understood to have been 

 a 'salt' in his youth, would not have been so astute. 

 A.D. 1800: 'A curious match was run in 

 December at Doncaster, which brought into 

 competition the speed of the race-horse and the 

 greyhound. A mare was started, and after she 

 had gone a distance of about a mile, a greyhound 

 bitch was let loose from the side of the course, 

 and ran with her nearly head to head to the 

 distance post, where 5 to 4 was laid on the 

 greyhound. At the stand it was even betting, 

 but the mare eventually won by little more than 

 a head.' Evidently more details would be 

 necessary before this account could be of any 

 service to anybody who, like Colonel North, the 

 ' nitrate king,' in our day, should contemplate a 

 similar match, and should be at a loss to know 

 how the greyhound could be made to understand 

 and to do what was expected of it. 



