COUKSING. 



COURSING. 



THIS sport comes properly under two heads ; some 

 persons keeping greyhounds wholly for the purpose of 

 public racing for prizes, others using them merely as 

 instruments of private amusement. In both cases, how- 

 ever, the rules for breeding, rearing, and training, are 

 essentially the same. There is a popular fallacy exist- 

 ing in many districts where coursing is only followed 

 as a private pastime, that greyhounds for mountains 

 and rough wild downs should not be too highly bred. 

 There is a passage in Beckford that applies directly to 

 such impressions : " I have often heard, as an excuse 

 for hounds not hunting a cold scent, that they were too 

 high-bred. I confess I know not what that means ; but 

 this I know, that hounds are frequently too ill-bred to 

 be of any service." 



The fine thorough-bred greyhound, known to all 

 coursers, is no new species, (though, until the hare became 

 the quarry in coursing, the wiry-haired race was used 

 as alone fit to pull down the mountain and forest deer,) 

 as, in its silky coat and blood-like shape, it is found in 

 most of the pictures of Charles the F^rst. No doubt it 

 has since undergone many changes for the better, moie 

 especially in the crosses to which it was subjected by 

 the skill and industry of the late Lords Orford and 

 Rivers. All that the moderate courser of the present day 



