SOME ENGLISH COURSING CLUBS 203 



well-known hostelries overlooking the river in the last-mentioned 

 town have their choice of quarters. I myself have tried both 

 Rochester and Gravesend, and find that the only advantage 

 in the former place lies in the fact that the express trains to 

 Chatham are available. 



With meetings recurring every two or three weeks during 

 the season, the stakes at Cliffe are made to suit all comers, and, 

 ranging from 30^-. to 4/. icf. and 5/. \os., the average is probably 

 about 3/. ■^s. The one-day fixtures are entirely confined to 

 members of the club, but at the larger meetings the more 

 important stakes are of the hybrid character so often met 

 with nowadays, i.e. open to the public after the members 

 have taken what subscriptions they may require. Thus we 

 have seen here, at a December meeting, dogs from Lincolnshire, 

 Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and South Wales, in addition to the 

 usual supply from the Southern Counties, and curiously enough 

 many owners have sent animals in order that they may get 

 something approaching a Waterloo trial. I shall refer to this 

 subject again directly, but first it may be as well to mention 

 that the coursing ground is of enormous extent, and almost 

 entirely composed of what are called ' Marshes ' in the local 

 vernacular, but they really are the soundest old pasture, 

 enclosures intersected and divided by dykes or ditches. The 

 country lies on the south side of the river Thames, and, be- 

 ginning at a point half-a-dozen miles east of Gravesend, it 

 extends to Port Victoria, five-and-twenty miles away. Readers 

 who are acquainted with the lower reaches of the Thames will 

 know that the cliffs lie back some four miles from the river 

 between Gravesend and Sheerness, and the tract between the 

 sea-wall and the higher land — 25 x 4 miles — forms the happy 

 hunting ground of the Cliffe Club. Oxen and sheep are 

 grazed on the marshes, and one has only to glance once at the 

 live stock to be able to form an opinion as to the enormous 

 feeding properties of the grass, which necessarily must be also 

 the regular diet of the hares. Down on the ' Isle of Grain ' 

 close to Port Victoria there is some arable land, but as it lies 



