COURSING 



LET us pass over the early history of coursing. We 

 know that Arrian wrote of the sport in the second 

 J century, that King John accepted greyhounds in 

 Heu of cash for renewing crown tenures in the 

 thirteentli, that that all-round sportsman, Henry viii., allowed 

 twenty- four loaves a day for his greyhounds, and that Thomas, 

 Duke of Norfolk, bestowed his approval on the first code of 

 coursing laws in Elizabeth's time. It is also common know- 

 ledge that Thomas Goodlake assigns to Lord Orford (famed for 

 his four-in-hand of red deer) credit for laying the foundation 

 of modern coursing by his establishment of the Swaffham Club 

 in 1776, which club's modern namesake courses over the same 

 ground. Lord Orford is said to have crossed the greyhound 

 of his day with the bulldog, and to have persevered with this 

 somewhat unpromising experiment to the sixth or seventh 

 generation when he confounded his opponents by producing 

 the ancestor of the modern greyhound. ' The blood of the 

 late Lord Orford's Dogs,' says Daniel, ' engrafted into those of 

 Wiltshire and Yorkshire have turned out the best Greyhounds.' 

 Czarina was one of Lord Orford's breed : she ran forty-seven 

 courses without defeat : her son Claret was a famous dog, and 

 Claret's son Snowball was ' supposed to be (taken for every- 

 thing) the best Greyhound that ever was ' : this, despite the 

 fact that his brother. Major, always beat him. 



The literature of coursing is curiously scant, having regard 

 to the antiquity of the sport. That is a picturesque account of 

 it given by Christopher North (1842). ' Old Kit ' held organ- 

 ised coursing of small account by comparison with that to be 

 enjoyed on the moors : — 



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