A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



Cup. But Thompson was a poor man, and he 

 made 'Jenny' as game a piece of greyhound 

 flesh as ever was whelped, * sweat for t' brass.' 



It is claimed for Jenny Macpherson that she 

 raised more flags in public than any other grey- 

 hound, the total number certainly exceeding 

 eighty-four. She represented Mr. N. Dunn in 

 Bit o' Fashion's and Miss Glendyne's Waterloo 

 Cup, but was dismissed in the first round by 

 Iowa, and then beaten in the second round for the 

 Purse by Nobleman. ' Jenny,' ' Jinnie,' ' Jock,' 

 'Lance,' Rose Macpherson and Bird's Head all 

 hailed from Spennymoor ; but Herschel, the 

 Koh-i-noor of the litter, became the property of 

 that famous Lancashire courser, the late Mr. 

 T. D. Hornby, and divided for that gentleman 

 the Waterloo Cup of 1887 with his kennel 

 companion, Mr. R. F. Gladstone's Greater Scot. 

 Herschel was indeed a great all-round dog ; for, 

 apart from his victory in the Cup, he ran a 

 splendid course in the following year against the 

 mighty Fullerton. He had, too, the worst of 

 the handicap ; for whereas the Shortflatt wonder 

 (owned by the late Colonel North, who gave 

 Mr. Edward Dent 850 for him) had got 

 lightly off on the preceding night, Herschel had 

 been run to a standstill by a real Altcar ' stag.' 

 By a cross between Lance Macpherson and 

 Border-at-Home, Mr. Thompson bred a useful 

 bitch in Never-at-Home (1887), who produced 

 Flitting Far, Found Faithless, and Mull-at- 

 Home to Mullingar in 1891. He also owned 

 one of the hardest and soundest dogs that ever 

 went after a hare in Randy Scot by Greater 

 Scot Rora(i89i), 'Randy' being the sire of Our 

 Nellie, a Netherby Cup winner in 1899, then 

 running in the ownership of Mr. W. Anderson 

 Felling. 



British Engineer, Jarrow Engineer, and Lake- 

 side II whelped in 1893, were also Durham- 

 bred dogs, always fairly useful when placed in 

 their own class. The first-named pair did good 

 service at minor meetings for Mr. Z. Harris, 

 ex-mayor of Jarrow-on-Tyne. 



Come we now to the sensational flier Can- 

 goroo, 1 whelped in 1 884 by Bothal Park Bundle- 

 and-Go, and owned by Mr. J. Kellet, of Butter- 

 knowle, for whom he won the Gosforth Gold 

 Cup (128 entries) in 1886, beating in the final 

 course Mr. R. F. Gladstone's great dog Green- 

 tick. After this fine performance Cangoroo 

 ran for Mr. T. Wilkinson, also a county Durham 

 man, who owned the dam of the speedy black as 

 he did also Bundle and Go II. a smart runner 

 of a hare. Never a greyhound of all-round 

 attributes, Cangoroo thereafter distinguished him- 



1 A little story is attached to the naming of Can- 

 goroo. Kellet, his owner, intended that the dog's 

 name should be ' Kangaroo ' ; but adopting his own 

 orthography he spelt it ' Cangoroo,' and as such the 

 name was accepted by Mr. David Brown, of Dairy, 

 N.B., the first keeper of the Greyhound Stud-book. 



self on the field by running into the last four for 

 the Gosforth Gold Cup of 1888. He was a 

 product of the spurious inclosed coursing which 

 originated under the late Mr. Thomas Case at 

 Plumpton nearly thirty years ago, and which 

 obtained at Gosforth Park for some seven or eight 

 seasons in the ' eighties ' of the last century, 

 and at Haydock Park. 



The modus operandi of inclosure coursing was 

 essentially artificial. The hares were collected 

 overnight into a ' prison ' and driven out to the 

 slipper in the field, puss making as a rule straight 

 for the escape covert at the far end of the inclo- 

 sure. It was, in fact, more a case of racing 

 than of true coursing in the open, where the 

 hare has all the many chances of escape at sough, 

 drain, fence, smeuse or covert ; her dodging and 

 doubling bringing out all-round cleverness rather 

 than pace alone. At the period we are speaking 

 of a breed of greyhounds came into existence 

 whose speed alone was their forte. 



Our Nellie (1895) by Randy Scot Our 

 Mary was owned by Mr. W. Bland of Boldon 

 Colliery, and won a few stakes for him during 

 her running career, the Netherby Cup of 1899 

 being her greatest exploit. 



The late Mr. R. Nellist, of Bishop Auckland, 

 was a prominent supporter of coursing a quarter 

 of a century ago, but he never possessed a top- 

 sawyer. Nor should the names of the late Jim 

 Simpson (the owner of Mousquetaire), Mat 

 Forrest, and Mr. ' Joe ' Harley, all of Sunder- 

 land, be omitted from a list of Palatinate coursers. 

 Simpson was afterwards closely associated with 

 the great Shortflatt kennel of Mr. Edward Dent, 

 training for him the great Fullerton and others 

 of the brilliant stud that carried everything before 

 them between 1880 and 1890. The blight of 

 impaired health and misfortune fell upon poor 

 Simpson in the closing years of his chequered 

 career, and he died a broken-hearted man. 



Mention of the name of Mr. 'Joe' Harley 

 recalls one of the most exciting scenes ever 

 witnessed in an inclosure. He owned a very 

 smart but slow bitch in Border Lass. She met 

 the great Irish dog, Alec Halliday, in the course 

 of a Gosforth Gold Cup. The ' Emperor of 

 judges,' the late Mr. James Hedley, officiated at 

 nearly all of those great meetings. Long odds 

 were laid on Alec Halliday, who took a com- 

 manding lead ; but the bitch, nicking in from 

 the turn, scored and fairly outworked the 

 favourite. When Mr. Hedley decided for the 

 dog he came in for a most hostile demonstration 

 from the spectators, as nearly every man on the 

 stand thought it was a clear win for the bitch. 

 At the period of which we are speaking, 

 Mr. Hedley judged the courses at Gosforth from 

 a ladder which was placed in the middle of the 

 trial field, the competing greyhounds running 

 between his view and that of the crowd. Thus 

 he viewed the courses from a totally different 



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