170 COURSING 



task, for it is difficult to ascribe a feasible reason why a trial 

 of moderate length should be prejudicial to a young grey- 

 hound. Take, for instance, one which is born, say, in January. 

 He does well, gets over a mild attack of distemper, and by 

 March of the following year is, as far as the eye and the hand 

 can tell, a well-developed and mature youngster, as well fitted 

 for the task as a two-year old racehorse or a University athlete. 

 His speed may be at its prime ; his stamina should be sufficient 

 to carry him through the apparently by no means trying ordeal 

 of working his hare up half the space of an ordinary coursing 

 enclosure. Without being trained to the hour, he is yet in a 

 state of excitement, health, and fitness, carrying no superfluous 

 flesh or fat within or without. He does what is asked, and 

 shows no outward or visible signs of temporary distress or 

 lasting deterioration ; he has seen a hare, and enjoyed the 

 fiery joy of the chase ; henceforth he is on the alert, he has a 

 degree of confidence lacking in the green novice, and he 

 despises opposition. When the forthcoming campaign looms 

 in the near future you have no reason to doubt his prowess. 

 His performance as a sapling was unexceptionable, his physique 

 and breeding all that could be desired ; but what is the result ? 

 In nine cases out of ten he proves to be practically useless, and 

 his retirement from public running rather than ' the Blue Ribbon 

 of the Leash ' is the goal to which he is inevitably drifting. 



Hence, in summing up, we are reluctantly compelled to 

 record our opinion that, though in theory there is no discernible 

 reason why a mature sapling of fifteen months, in a state of 

 physical well-being, is unfit to compete against one of his own 

 age in a trial of limited length, practice, on the other hand, 

 holds up a warning finger, and, despite the mighty achieve- 

 ments of Miss Glendyne and her half-sister, the peerless matron 

 Bit of Fashion, warns us that, if we have a sapling of excep- 

 tional promise, his public efforts should be decayed until he 

 enters upon the season of his legitimate puppyhood. With 

 these remarks we bring to a close our analysis of the answers 

 received to our circular. Such an expression of opinion from 



