180 PUBLIC COURSING. 



extensive studs of our large public coursers. I propose, therefore, 

 to show all who may be desirous of obtaining the information, 

 how they may best enter upon this sport, with the least expense 

 to themselves, and with the greatest prospect of success ; remem- 

 bering always, that money as a prize should not be the desideratum 

 per se, but solely, as was observed by the late Lord Greorge 

 Bentinck, as a proof of success. Everyone who knew him was 

 aware how little value he set upon gold, but no one would strive 

 more ardently than he to succeed in obtaining it, when held out 

 as the test of success, in a sport to which he devoted his whole 

 mental and bodily energies, till called by what he considered his 

 duty into another sphere of action. Although much has been 

 written on this subject, and sometimes the information is of great 

 value, yet it has been universally admitted that the information 

 thus offered is so diffuse, and given in a form so unintelligible 

 to the beginner, that it is almost wholly useless to him. Mr. 

 Thacker's two volumes contain a vast amount of useful and 

 interesting matter, but with the good corn there is much chaff, 

 and it is only to the practised courser that they are really valuable. 

 As a Coursing Judge he certainly astonishes the reader of his 

 notes, by the extent of his knowledge of the merits of the grey- 

 hound, but as a greyhound manager, from a want of experience, he 

 Tvas obliged to obtain his information from others and is not in 

 this department so much to be depended upon. Since his time 

 nothing of any value has appeared, and I believe that no one 

 would have much prospect of success in public, if depending 

 solely upon what he may find in print. At all events, until he has 



