212 SPORTING STORIES 



appearance of a piece of green turf. When Sir Humphrey 

 emerged from his involuntary bath, covered with mud, 

 slime, and mangled water-cresses, Sir Walter received him 

 with a triumphant encore! But the philosopher had his 

 revenge, for joining soon afterwards in a brisk gallop, Scott 

 put Sibyl Grey at a leap beyond her powers, and lay 

 humbled in the ditch, while Davy, who was better mounted, 

 cleared it and him at a bound." 



Scott himself used to tell the following story : — " There 

 was a coursing club once upon a time at Balchristy's in 

 the Province, or, as it is popularly called, the Kingdom of 

 Fife. The members were elderly, sociable men, to whom 

 a very moderate allowance of sport served as an introduction 

 to a hearty dinner and a jolly evening. Now a certain 

 stout hare had her seat on the ground where they usually 

 met, who usually gave the amusement of three or four 

 turns when she was put up — a sure sign of a strong hare 

 when practised by any beyond the age of a leveret — then 

 stretched out in great style, and after affording the 

 gentlemen an easy canter of a mile or two, threw out the 

 dogs by passing through a particular gap in an enclosure. 

 This sport the same hare gave to the same party for one or 

 two seasons, and it was just enough to afford the worthy 

 members of the club a sufficient reason to be alleged to 

 their wives or others whom it might concern for passing 

 the day in the public-house. At length, a fellow who 

 attended the hunt nefariously thrust his plaid into the gap 

 I mentioned, and poor puss, her retreat being thus cut off, 

 was, in the language of the dying Desdemona, ' Basely, 

 basely murdered.' 



" The sport of the Balchristy Club seemed to end with 

 this famous hare. They either found no more hares, or 

 such as only afforded a hulloa and a squeak, or gave them 

 longer runs than they had any pleasure in following. The 

 spirit of the meeting died away, and it was at length given 

 up altogether. The publican was, of course, the party most 

 affected by this, and, as may be supposed, regarded with 

 no complacency the person who had prevented the hare 

 from escaping. One day a gentleman asked what had 

 become of the obnoxious individual. ' He's dead, sir,' 



