HEROES OF THE LEASH 211 



slips scores the first turn in addition to the points for speed. 

 My object here is simply to give a few interesting anecdotal 

 data of the sport. 



Of its antiquity there can be no doubt, though when and 

 whence greyhounds were introduced, how they were bred, 

 or what the origin of the name is, are questions to which 

 no satisfactory answer has yet been given. The first 

 association of coursers of which there is any record was 

 Swaffham Club in Norfolk, founded by Lord Orford in 

 1776, and thereby hangs a tragic tale. His lordship was 

 the owner of the famous bitch Czarina, the progenitrix ot 

 all the great greyhounds since her time, who ran 47 

 matches and was never once beaten. In the last and most 

 exciting of her matches she was so hard pressed that when 

 the verdict was given in her favour, Lord Orford, who had 

 worked himself up to an intense pitch of excitement, fell 

 from his pony in a fit and was picked up dead. 



Czarina's grandson, Snowball, was the " Eclipse " of the 

 Leash. Like his grand-dam, he was never beaten ; and Sir 

 Walter Scott, himself an enthusiastic courser, has paid 

 him and his progeny this tribute : — 



" Who knows not Snowball ? He who's race renowned 

 Is still victorious on each coursing ground. 

 Swaffham, Newmarket, and the Roman Camp 

 Have seen them victors o'er each meaner stamp." 



Major Topham, a Yorkshire sportsman, owned Snowball, 

 and after winning many matches with him issued a 

 challenge to the world for any sum from i^iooo to ;^5000 

 a side. But Snowball's prowess was too well known, and 

 no owner of greyhounds cared to take up the glove. 



Sir Walter Scott, as I have said, was an enthusiastic 

 lover of coursing, and in Lockhart's Life there is a racy 

 description of a match on Newark Hill, in which the 

 novelist, with Sir Humphrey Davy, Dr Mackenzie, and 

 others took part. " Coursing on such a mountain as 

 Newark," writes Lockhart, " is not like the same sport over 

 a set of firm English pastures. There were gulfs to be 

 avoided, and bogs to be threaded ; many a nag stuck fast ; 

 and another stranger to the ground besides Davy plunged 

 neck-deep into a treacherous well-head which bore the 



