SOME ENGLISH COURSING CLUBS 205 



No beaters are engaged at Cliffe, but the farmers and 

 others generally ride in line up and down the marshes with 

 the Slipper and Judge together in the centre. The progress is 

 a steady three miles and a half per hour, the crowd following 

 behind the horses and never getting a rest for a moment, 

 unless it happens that a marsh is walked over to which there 

 is only one entrance. There is absolutely no galloping when 

 a course is going on, and as at Altcar it is often impossible for 

 the judge to leave the marsh in which the dogs were slipped. 

 I have seen Mr. Brice ride a long way occasionally, but this 

 has always occurred when he has been able to follow his dogs 

 through an open gate. Coursing generally ranges over a 

 period of from six to seven hours— according to the time of 

 year — with half an hour's interval for lunch. The spectator, 

 therefore, gets a fair day's walking in addition to the sport, and 

 I have often wondered how the Lancashire men, who stand 

 still whilst all their hares are driven for them, would like the 

 change to the primitive style of the Kentish marshes. An 

 intending visitor should write to Rochester for a hack, if he 

 does not care about pedestrian exercise, and I may mention 

 that once, when suffering from a sprained ankle, I borrowed a 

 pony from the shepherd, upon whose back (the pony's) I was 

 able to write the full report of a three days' meeting. 



Although visitors generally choose Rochester or Gravesend 

 for their temporary quarters when running dogs at Cliffe, I 

 must not omit to state that there is a station only a mile from 

 the village — on the single branch line from Gravesend to Port 

 Victoria — and this brings to my mind a somewhat amusing 

 recollection in connection with the splendid time kept by the 

 railway which serves the district. The incident took place 

 two or three years ago, when the Company referred to used to 

 run a special to Cliffe, and was as follows. The special had 

 come down fairly well filled in the morning, and as the day 

 was the last of the meeting we, who had been stopping in Kent, 

 were very anxious to know what time it returned, as by availing 

 ourselves of it the journey to London ought to have been 



