SOME ENGLISH COURSING CLUBS 213 



ness being an important factor in the result of many of the 

 trials. Reference to the Calendar will show that clever bitches, 

 who would be outpaced in an open stake at Haydock or Wye, 

 are often returned winners at Lichfield, and writing from 

 memory of what has occurred in the last few seasons, I can 

 instance such as Daisy of the Green, Rheda Macpherson, 

 Jenny Jones, Flowering Fern, and Dear Sal, all of which were 

 successful in the more important stakes. 



NORTH OF ENGLAND CLUB 



Since Mr. Snowdon became secretary of the North of Eng- 

 land Club, that association has rapidly increased its opera- 

 tions, and now is virtually the controlling power of all the open 

 public coursing in the county of Durham, and a very great part 

 of that which takes place in Northumberland and the North 

 Riding of Yorkshire. No other coursing club has ever assumed 

 the dimensions of the North of England, and in proof of what 

 it can do, let me state that in the season 1890-91, thirteen 

 meetings with eighteen days' coursing were satisfactorily ac- 

 complished, while no fewer than eighteen different postpone- 

 ments took place. This is a tremendous record for such a 

 severe winter as that just mentioned, and it may further be added 

 that, had the season been an open one, second meetings 

 would have been held over several of the estates where leave is 

 granted. 



Begun in a very humble way by a few Newcastle-on-Tyne 

 innkeepers, the North of England dates back to 1835 ; ^ )ut 

 early accounts are altogether wanting, and I can only learn 

 that the draws were held at the houses of each of the licensed 

 victualling members in rotation, and that he whose turn it was 

 engaged his own judge and slipper. Tradition further adds 

 that the choosing landlord generally won ; but I will not insult 

 the good people of Newcastle by asserting that I believe this. 

 Joking apart, however, the club under discussion was never 

 exclusive as regards membership, and although respectability 



