A HISTORY OF KENT 



the church. Here, as in the case of human 

 delinquents in former times who fled to 

 sanctuary, they were free from molestation, 

 and no attempt was ever made to molest 

 further any hare which reached the church- 

 yard in safety. But the time came when it 

 was necessary that the church should be 

 repaired and the rector (who, by the by, 

 only paid a visit about once in six months) 

 came to the owner of the island for a sub- 

 scription. The latter was a generous man 

 and quite ready at all times to put his hand 

 in his pocket in a good cause, but he made 

 it a bargain that if he subscribed towards 

 the repair fund, his hares should still be 

 allowed sanctuary beneath the church. To 

 this the pastor refused to agree, and eventually 

 he got his own way much to the chagrin of 

 the owner of the land and to the discomfort 

 of the hares. 



Although there were no open meetings 

 held in Kent in 1857, the following names 

 of Kentish men appear in the list of ' Public 

 Coursers ' in the first volume of the Coursing 

 Calendar — Mr. Blenkiron of Eltham Park ; 

 Mr. E. Collyer of Southfleet near Gravesend ; 

 Messrs. W. and J. B. Strother of Shooter's 

 Hill ; and Mr. Walter Vipan of The Her- 

 mitage at Erith. 



The Calendar of 1867 is the first volume 

 to contain any returns of Kentish coursing, 

 and two meetings then came into vogue. 

 These were the Quex Park Club (Isle of 

 Thanet) and the Downs Club (Sandwich). 

 The former meeting under distinguished 

 patronage yielded very good sport, and many 

 stakes of fair value were decided at the 

 several fixtures carried out each season ; in- 

 deed, it appears to have been the most influ- 

 ential club in the county's brief coursing 

 history. The Quex Park gatherings, however, 

 only extended over some ten years, and 

 strangely enough its co-pioneer, the Downs 

 Club, flickered out in the following year, 1878. 



In 1873 two new ventures were embarked 

 upon, the Isle of Sheppey and the Seven- 

 oaks meetings. It is however hardly correct 

 to refer to the latter as a single meeting, 

 for the Calendar returns details of sport 



as having taken place there under the 

 several heads of Sevenoaks, Otford (Seven- 

 oaks) and Otford Castle (Sevenoaks), from 

 which it would appear that there were two, 

 if not three, different bodies in existence in 

 the district. They all dropped out, however, 

 about 1880, and in the Isle of Sheppey cours- 

 ing did not continue much longer, for no 

 returns are given after the season 1882-3. 

 A year later the Wye (East Kent) meetings 

 came into existence ; but they, too, have 

 now disappeared from the fixture list. 



In the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury coursing was promoted by the North 

 Kent Club and by the Cliffe and Hundred 

 of Hoo Club, and subsequently the Gravesend 

 and the Edenbridge and Tonbridge Clubs 

 came into being. An amalgamation of the 

 Gravesend and Cliffe Clubs eventually took 

 place, and they, together with the Eden- 

 bridge and Tonbridge Club, provide the 

 only coursing now held in the county. Each 

 conducted several highly successful meet- 

 ings in the season of 1906-7, the Gravesend 

 cards being generally the strongest, although 

 nothing ambitious is attempted. These clubs 

 are apparently in a prosperous position, 

 although — situated as their meetings are 

 at a great distance from the northern training 

 grounds — they do not attract much more 

 than local support. 



No allusion to Kentish coursing would 

 be complete without mention of Colonel 

 North, who resided at Avery Hill, Eltham. 

 His famous dog, FuUerton, divided the Water- 

 loo Cup of 1889 and won outright in the 

 three succeeding years. Although trained in 

 Northumberland, Fullerton spent his declin- 

 ing years at the home of his proud owner. 

 Destined to be the centre of sensational 

 incidents, Fullerton proved to be, at the stud, 

 as complete a failure as he had been a remark- 

 able success in the coursing arena. The 

 scare caused by his straying from his Eltham 

 home, and the hue and cry raised during the 

 few days he was missing, are fresh in the 

 memory, and served to show how great a 

 public idol Fullerton was. May Kent herself 

 produce one as good ere long ! 



RACING 



The story of Kentish racing is such that of the kingdom. Indeed, of its one time 



its chapters must deal principally with the 

 incidents of a long buried past, for the county 

 has been one of those most severely affected 

 for a considerable period by the establish- 

 ment of more popular fixtures in other parts 



fame as a home of sport upon the Turf, it 

 must be admitted that practically nothing 

 nowadays remains. 



This regrettable state of affairs is in no 

 sense the fault of Kent or of those good 



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