287 



Only four times in the history of the Waterloo Cup have kennel 

 companions been left in for the final, and they occurred within the 

 past nine meetings. Strange also is the fact that the honours were 

 shared equally by two public kennelp. Mr. Edward Dent in 1885 with 

 his own bitch, Bit of Fashion, divided with Mr. C. Hibbert's Miss 

 Olendyne. Again in 1889 the same trainer brought out Colonel North's 

 two dogs Fullerton and Troughend, who also divided. In 1887 Herschel 

 for Mr. T. D. Hornby and Greater Scot for Mr. R. F. Gladstone 

 divided, both being trained by Mr. Archibald Coke of Southport. 



It remained, however, for the memorable meeting to which I sra 

 alluding to have all such records broken, when for the first time 

 devolved upon the one trainer the high honour of leading to the slipper, 

 to run off the deciding course for the Waterloo, two dogs trained by 

 himself. This fell to the lot of the son of the trainer of Herschel and 

 Greater Scot, when in each hand Mr. John Coke led to Bootiman his 

 own dog Character and Mr. T. Baxter's fourth-season dog Button Park. 

 The former won the stake, and, as has been shown, they were both rank 

 outsiders on the night of the draw. 



Character, who w^as vv^helped in August, '91, ran unsuccessfully four 

 times when a puppy, and never won a stake before he won the blue 

 riband. So little was he thought of two months previously that he 

 could have been bought for £25, yet he has the best greyhound blood 

 in his veins, including that of Master McGrath. 



The trials on Monk's Carr on the first day were pronounced to be the 

 best hitherto seen at Altcar, while those on the second day, over the 

 Engine House Flats, were still better. Those of the concluding day at 

 Lydiate were not so good. The going there, and on the Withins for 

 the last seven courses on the first day, was sloppy and greatly against 

 the hares, but Monk's Carr and the Engine House Meadows afforded 

 the best of going. The attendance has been estimated at the greatest 

 which ever visited Altcar— that on the first day being put down at 

 30,000 people. 



For the information of those who never saw the Waterloo or other 

 such big coursing meeting, I may state that on the first day the crowd 

 had a full view of forty-one courses without having to move from the 

 one spot. And if hares had come to hand in as great numbers as they 

 did on former occasions, the whole forty-eight courses, which were set 

 down for the day, could have been run off in the same place. The 

 conduct of the spectators at this meeting was beyond all praise, and so 

 were the arrangements except in the one cardinal point— fair play to 

 the hares. From the nature of the ground at Altcar it seems to be an 

 impossibility to provide such, and without it, coursing there cannot be 

 included in the category of, what I call, Sport. 



What a rum thing is luck ! Men have spent a lifetime striving to win 

 a Waterloo and can't succeed. Those who from their practical experience 

 and thorough knowledge not only of the sport but of how greyhounds 

 should be bred, reared, and trained for an event of the kind fail year after 

 year in their endeavours to win the blue riband. Yet Colonel North at 



