PUBLIC COURSING. 311 
over the beaten ground, taking what is called a “dead beat,” 
and then again beating from covert. When the part of a field is 
beaten near the hedge, the line on that side should be extended 
forwards; and if there is a horseman present, he should walk up 
close to the hedge, thirty yards in front of the others, so as to 
prevent the hare at once running through it. Hares may often 
be driven out of turnips, clover, or small coverts by a line of 
beaters driving them towards the dogs, which are held at a par- 
ticular spot, and kept as much as possible out of sight. The slipper 
uses the same kind of slips as are adopted in public coursing, and 
slips his dogs in the same way, adapting the length of the slip 
allowed to the nature of the ground. It is a very bad plan to let 
the greyhounds run loose while the hare is looked for, as the two 
rarely start on even terms, and consequently they cannot be com- 
pared together. Udnless, therefore, coursing is pursued solely to 
get the hare, slips are indispensable. 
When private coursing is conducted in the above way, it is 
quite as good a sport as the public kind; but too often it degene- 
rates into a series of mobbings of the hare, followed by perpetual 
squabblings of the owners of the dogs engaged, as to their re- 
spective merits or demerits. 
PUBLIC COURSING. 
This amusement has now become very general since the last 
alteration of the Game Laws, which permitted any person to course 
a hare without a certificate. It differs from private coursing, firstly, 
in requiring rather a different greyhound, and secondly, in being 
governed strictly by rules which settle all the preliminaries. 
The public greyhound, to be successful, must be a dog which can 
beat his competitors in the stake in which he is engaged, even 
if he never runs afterwards respectably. Hence, unlike the dog 
which we have been just considering, everything is sacrificed to 
this point, and it has at last come to pass that the animal has been 
bred to such a degree of cleverness combined with speed that he 
very soon runs cunning, and is then no longer useful, because 
he will not exert his powers. The consequence is, that a great 
many dogs begin by running with extraordinary pace and working 
