6 COURSING 



17. If there be no cotes given between a brace of greyhounds and 



that the one of them serves the other as turning, then he 

 that gives the hare most turns wins the wager ; and if one 

 give as many turns as the other, he that beareth the hare 

 wins the wager. 



1 8. Sometimes the hare doth not turn but wrencheth, for she is 



not properly said to turn, unless she turns as it were 

 round ; and two wrenches stand for a turn. 



19. He that comes in first to the death of the hare, takes her up 



and saves her from breaking, cherishes the dogs and 

 cleanses their mouths from the wool, is adjudged to have 

 the hare for his pains. 



20. Those that are judges of the leash must give their judgment 



presently, before they depart the field. 



The earliest coursing seems to have been private, but in the 

 reign of the first Charles matches were decided in public, and 

 they have increased in popularity till the present day, when the 

 Waterloo Cup is recognised as one of the chief events of the 

 sporting year, even by those who are in no way enthusiastic 

 about the greyhound. 



It is not the purpose of this work to trace the history of 

 coursing as related in the works of Dame Juliana Berners, 

 Wynkyn de Worde, Daniel, and other authorities, nor will 

 space be occupied with well-worn quotations from Shakespeare 

 and elsewhere. It is rather the object to describe the method 

 in which coursing is carried on, so that any reader who has a 

 fancy for the leash may be provided with information which 

 will help him to join the ranks of the coursers with some 

 knowledge of what is done, and some perception of (what the 

 writer's experience has induced him to regard as) the best way 

 of attaining success. Those who are curious as to the progress 

 and development of coursing may be referred to the third 

 volume of ' The Greyhound Stud Book,' in which an exhaustive 

 chapter on the subject appears. 



Much misconception prevails about coursing. Compara- 



