212 COURSING 



supplementary eights. If the first day has proved very 

 successful, made-up stakes are quite the rule, and matches are 

 also often added to the card. The fixtures are attended by 

 coursers from all parts of the kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, 

 and at least a dozen English counties, being sometimes repre- 

 sented at the same meeting. 



The draw dinner at Lichfield is a great institution, and Mr. 

 Trevor, the secretary (at whose Swan Hotel headquarters are), 

 is so popular, in the district that some of the neighbouring 

 gentry always put in an appearance, prepared to support the 

 host and welcome the visitors from a distance. 



The first day's coursing usually takes place at Cooper's 

 Coppice, about six miles from the city, and on high land in 

 the immediate vicinity of Cannock Chase. On this part of the 

 ground there are some first-rate trial fields, but the stubbles are 

 not quite free from stones, and the venue, good though it is, is 

 not to be compared with Fiaxley Green, which is the alternate 

 meet. This place is quite ten miles away from headquarters, but 

 the drive, either by way of Longdon and Rugeley or through 

 Beaudesert Park, is exceedingly pretty, and though the train to 

 Rugeley does the distance in a quarter of an hour, it is little 

 used except in wet weather. The courses at Fiaxley Green 

 are now run entirely upon grass, and the forty-acre meadow at 

 the bottom of the hill is undoubtedly one of the finest trial 

 grounds in England. There is a give and take about it which 

 causes an infinite variety in the coursing ; the view to the 

 crowd is, from the conformation of the ground, simply perfect, 

 and it can safely be said that the courses average at least forty 

 points before puss comes to grief or makes good her escape 

 at the boundary fence. 



A characteristic of the coursing on Beaudesert estate is to 

 be found in the fact that speed is hardly so much served as 

 elsewhere, and though dogs are sometimes slipped to demon 

 hares who take a vast deal of reaching, it is nevertheless the 

 fact that clever— and sometimes little — bitches always show their 

 best form over this ground, quick turning and general sharp- 



