SOME ENGLISH COURSING CLUBS 199 



I need hardly remind my readers that Gallant Foe was the 

 mother of that wonderful litter which included, amongst others, 

 Princess Dagmar, a winner of the Waterloo Cup ; Paris, the 

 sire of Miss Glendyne and Bit of Fashion, and therefore the 

 grandsire of Fullerton, Palm Bloom, Prenez Garde, and Path- 

 finder. Gallant Foe, as Mr. Ellis tells us, was altogether a 

 Bothal Club greyhound, for her sire was Mr. Nathaniel Dunn's 

 Don Antonio, by Mr. Ellis's Elsecar, from Coxon's Peggy 

 Taft, and her mother Wilson's Meggie Smith ; all four owners 

 mentioned being members of the club. 



During the ten years which followed the victory of Gallant 

 Foe only one public meeting took place over the Bothal ground, 

 but in 1884 a revival was brought about, and with Mr. Ellis 

 showing all his old energy in the interests of the Northumber- 

 land coursers, the club gatherings soon began to be of import- 

 ance again. It was, however, never intended that any more 

 large stakes should be attempted, and thus the revived meet- 

 ings have been kept within limits. For all that, the number of 

 members of the Bothal Club is still very considerable, and as 

 long as the supply of hares holds out, the fixtures will be quite 

 as important as any held in Northumberland. During the 

 last two or three years the meetings have been run off as 

 joint affairs of the Bothal and North of England Clubs, and 

 as this arrangement allows of the services of Mr. Thomas 

 Snowdon as secretary, the prosperity of the gatherings has 

 been increased. 



And now, for the benefit of south-country coursers, I may 

 add that the ground is, most of it, quite first-rate. There 

 is a mixture of arable and grass, with hedges between ; but the 

 grass predominates, and the large field between two small 

 coverts, which is called * Abyssinia,' is as grand a trial ground 

 as any to be found in England. From the Cooper's shop at 

 Ashington, on either side of the lane, right down to Longhirst, 

 the coursing is always unexceptionable, and it is only when the 

 few rough fields, directly east of Longhirst station, are used, 

 that the fluky element is ever likely to enter into the trials. 



