170 A Sportsman at Large 



a very useful sapling out of a litter bred by that well-known 

 courser, Mr. Miller ; I named this one, who was a black, 

 Habeas Corpus. (It is the custom of coursing men to per- 

 petuate their own initials in the names of their greyhounds.) 

 Each one of the litter (which was by Misteston, winner of The 

 Waterloo Cup, out of Glenmahra, a noted matron) distinguished 

 itself eventually ; but the pick of the basket as far as " big 

 wins " was concerned, was another black, retained by Mr. 

 Miller and named Mullingar. He won the Champion Stakes 

 at Kempton, among other trophies, and was possessed of 

 extraordinary speed, though he was deficient in stamina. 

 In this respect he was the antithesis of his brother, my Habeas 

 Corpus, who had not first-class speed, but was a rare sticker, 

 and could stay for a month of Sundays. 



A propos the Kempton Champion Stakes, a good story is 

 told of the late Dick Dunn, the vociferous and forceful, but 

 kind-hearted and reliable bookie. He attended the meeting 

 with an eye to business and opened his book quite correctly 

 as regards the " long odds " ; but when it came to the individual 

 courses he got into a hopeless tangle. When Huic Holloa 

 and Royal Stag (I think these were the two) went to the slips, 

 Dick opened out with : 



" 'Ere ! seven to four, 'Uic 'Oiler, 'oo'll 'ave it ? " 



He was immediately snapped for 70 to 40 and various 

 smaller bets. This put the wind up him, and he started to 

 " come round on the book/' 



" Seven to four Royal Stag ! Seven to four Royal Stag ! " 

 he shouted. A brother of the pencil, who was no neophyte, 

 yelled out : 



" What the 'ell are you up to, Dick ? Blyme ! you're 

 lay in' odds agin both the blinkiri dogs ! " 



" Well, wot of it ? " roared Dunn. " Ain't the pore Uinkin' 

 'are got a chance then ? " 



To return to Habeas Corpus ; he won me some nice little 

 stakes in the open country (true sport), but was not fast enough 

 for what were known in those days as " The Enclosures." 

 His best performance was winning the South of England 

 Challenge Cup. As a new dog of mine, called Handley Cross, 

 did the trick the following year, and as the South of England 



