COURSING 



trial cleverly at his expense. Some of the dog carriages are 

 drawn in great state by three donkeys, but many trainers 

 discard them altogether. Light Cavalry is at the ditch side 

 straining for the fray, and we also mark the dingy face of 

 Bethell (by Boanerges from Mischief), own brother to Bab at 

 the Bowster, and the grey features of Ewesdale, not a remark- 

 able dog in his day, but now of good repute among greyhounds 

 at the stud. The trainers are a motley lot as regards dress ; 

 but the real Altcar thing is supposed to be a sort of seal-skin 

 cap, with lappets for the ears, and a green coat, with mother-of- 

 pearl buttons about half the circumference of a cheese-plate. 

 What Lancashire Witch can stand against that ? 



' It is barely five minutes past ten, and up comes Mr. 

 Warwick, the judge, in his scarlet coat and blue bird's-eye, 

 to judge for the ninth year in succession. Another bit of 

 scarlet shows that Tom Raper, the slipper, has also stripped to 

 his work. He looks very worn in the face with so hard a life, 

 but the heart is as good and the legs are almost as nimble as 

 ever. We look in vain for old Will Warner, but we are told 

 that he has " turned it up." The crowd thickens fast, and as 

 far as the eye can reach towards Formby, they come steadily 

 tramping on. The vehicles alone seem to stretch for more 

 than half a mile in the line of march, and half of them are in the 

 commissariat service, and laden with pies, and cheese, and 

 liquors. Many visitors carry their own little polished drink 

 barrel slung across their shoulders, and those who have the 

 office look out, when luncheon time is nigh, for the hospitable 

 red flag with the white star in the centre, which flies as a token 

 at the top of a private omnibus from Lytham. Half the point 

 of the meet of Northend was lost this year by the absence of 

 the house party from Croxteth, and we might well long to see 

 the four dark chestnuts dash up in the green drag as of yore, 

 with the Earl of Sefton on the box. It seems but the other 

 day that his father was riding off across country to Croxteth, 

 to tell of his Sackcloth's victory. 



' The march of the cracks round and round the farm pad- 



159 



