COURSING 



to him to be told to " put on more powder " when all is over, 

 and he is wet up to his middle ? A policeman in a helmet has 

 a most tremendous reception when he jumps short ; but still 

 there is not the fun there was when fewer people came, and 

 poor John Jackson, in his lusty manhood, went striding and 

 shouting, with his short stick in his hand, over the ditches, and 

 when Jem Mace, or Joe Goss, were putting on condition after 

 that fashion. 



' And so the courses go on, and at last the crowd, some six 

 or seven thousand strong, line the high embankment on both 

 sides of a field where Patent ran one year. A sort of nervous 

 thrill goes through them when a beautiful worked course has 

 been run in full view between Jolly Green and Innkeeper. 

 " One more bye, and then the crack comes out," is the key to it. 

 They are so closely packed that it is difficult, as you stand, to 

 see right along the bank. In a minute a roar is heard at the 

 distance, and we know that the black, Master M'Grath, is 

 coming. Nearer and nearer, and the shout is taken up all 

 along the line, as when the St. Leger horses reach the Intake 

 turn, and the last struggle begins. Mr. Warwick tears along 

 at full gallop on the grey, almost level, and twenty yards to 

 the right of the hare, in order to be handy at the finish ; and 

 then comes the black dog with the white breast and the white 

 neck mark, going like a whirlwind twelve lengths ahead of 

 Borealis. She looks, in fact, like a mere terrier scuffling after 

 him, and when she did get up, the Irish dog had raced right 

 into his hare, and flung it up half dead into the air. Raper 

 said that he had never seen a greyhound go so fast, and the 

 Cup seemed to be over. Then Woman in Black delights the 

 Irish division once more, and Ask Mamma and Charming ]\Iay 

 ran as sweetly as ever. Except Lady Lyons, there was nothing 

 more beautiful than " May " on the field. Ghillie Callum then 

 gives the Scotchmen a good turn, and fastens on his hare, when 

 he kills so savagely that they are obliged to bite his ear before 

 he will resign it. Two other dogs cannot settle the knotty 

 point, and so they dash away and jump a wide ditch, holding 

 X 161 



