222 COURSING 



coursed over is a mixture of grass and arable land, but tiiere are 

 some nice sloping hillsides, which, though not high in them- 

 selves, are sufficient to afford dry lying for the hares, and, as a 

 consequence, there is none of the ' weakness ' referred to in the 

 account of Altcar. The hares, indeed, are veritable demons in 

 point of staying powers, and the particular breed to be found 

 on one portion of the ground has earned great notoriety 

 by the name of 'Jock o' Pods.' These specimens of- the 

 furry tribe have the reputation of being the stoutest hares 

 in the kingdom, and although I, personally, have seen game 

 go stronger at Stockbridge than anywhere, else, I must say 

 that a ' Jock o' Pods ' hare takes a great deal of killing, even 

 when he has a pair of the fastest greyhounds of the day at 

 his scut. 



As mentioned before, the coursing takes place on the 

 Clifton property, and although the present owner, Mr. Talbot 

 Clifton, has not yet joined the ranks of public coursers, he 

 takes great interest in the sport, and certainly shows a wonder- 

 ful head of game. On the first day of the meetings Birk's 

 Farm is generally the meeting-place, and operations are begun 

 with the driving of a large tract of arable land on to a grass flat. 

 The sport is generally very fair here, but if puss once reaches 

 the hillside, she generally gives her pursuers leg-bail in the 

 plantation. The ' crowd' have a first-rate view of this beat, 

 which generally takes a couple of hours to get through. A 

 move of half a mile is then made to another large flat, and 

 sometimes the card is worked off here ; if, however, this 

 cannot be managed, a second move of another half-mile has 

 to be undertaken, the ground reached this time being generally 

 arable. On the second day the coursing is somewhat further 

 afield, and the ground sometimes rather deeper, but ' Little 

 Plumpton ' now serves for all the finals, and the field so nick- 

 named affords a grand stretch of galloping, where, so long as 

 hares do not attempt the ' wired ' fence, the trials are most 

 legitimate. I have seen some gruelling courses on Little 

 Plumpton at the end of a meeting, but the going is always 



