SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



coursers of their day as Messrs. A. Brisco, 

 J. Hutchison, T. Stone, H. Brocklebank, and 

 H. Charles. Some seven years ago a change was 

 made and the office has since been filled by a 

 professional. A further glance at the list shows 

 how in succeeding years the names of some of 

 the most prominent owners of the day and the 

 most famous dogs are to be found. The re- 

 peated successes of Mr. Cooke and Cerito, Lord 

 Lurgan and Master McGrath, Col. North and 

 Fullerton are of course notable, as are those of 

 Messrs. Fawcett with their kennel, though in 

 this connexion the lucky nominator has on three 

 occasions been Mr. J. H. Bibby, the present 

 secretary of the meeting. As against such suc- 

 cesses, probably there never will fall to the lot 

 of a good and keen courser such tantalizing luck 

 as befell the Duke of Leeds in owning the run- 

 ner-up in three successive years. 



There probably never has been so great a 

 number of good dogs as were running during 

 Master McGrath's first season or two. If one 

 looks simply at the return of the winners of the 

 Cup, Purse, and Plate of his years and adds a 

 few other dogs of the period, sixteen or more 

 could probably be found to excel any sixteen of 

 any other time. Some may prefer Fullerton 

 and his period. We do not deny Fullerton's 

 excellence and his great success over Altcar, 

 but good judges believe that Master McGrath 

 in his time had to compete against better 

 greyhounds than any pitted against Fullerton. 

 In recent times the finest deciding course in the 

 opinion of the greatest judges of coursing was 

 that between Miss Glendyne and Penelope II. 



Of late years great improvements have been 

 effected in the state of the Altcar ground 

 by draining, levelling, and filling up ditches ; and 

 for these and other advantages the thanks of 

 all coursers are greatly due to the present lord 

 of the soil. We know how readily their thanks 

 are given in our own day whenever opportunity 

 offers ; and it is noticeable that in Thacker's 

 Coursing Annual in the account of the Water- 

 loo meeting of 1858 — especially interesting 

 as the meeting at which the formation of the 

 National Coursing Club took shape — it is re- 

 corded, as showing the feeling of the coursing 

 community of that day towards the fourth 

 Earl of Sefton, that the toast which Mr. A. 

 Graham proposed — 



The health of one who is a thorough sportsman 

 and a generous courser — of one whose greyhounds 

 are to be found competing for honours over the downs 

 of Wiltshire and Berkshire and amongst the hills of 

 Lanarkshire — and, best of all, who stands forth in 

 Lancashire the obliging and highly valued patron of 

 the greatest coursing meeting in the world. You 

 know that I refer to the Earl of Sefton, who is 

 worthy of the Waterloo meeting and the Waterloo 

 meeting is worthy of him — 



was most enthusiastically received. 



Since the Waterloo Cup started in 1836 as an 

 eight-dog stake, changing the next year to a 

 sixteen, to a thirty-two in the year following, 

 and to a sixty-four in 1857, the management or 

 the secretarial work has been in ^ few hands. 

 Prior to 1869 there does not seem to have been 

 any committee such as at present exists. Mr. 

 Lynn acted as secretary for many years. Then 

 came Mr. T. D. Hornby, who held office for a 

 long period. He was succeeded by the present 

 writer, followed in 1894 by Mr. J. Hartley 

 Bibby, who still holds office. In the report of 

 the Waterloo meeting of 1869, in volume xxiii 

 of the Coursing Calendar, there are some 

 interesting comments on the changes made 

 during the thirty-three years the cup had then 

 been in existence. It was only in 1857 '^^' ^^^ 

 Waterloo Collar was established, and it is only a 

 few years ago that the sixth Earl of Sefton made 

 the cup a reality by adding a piece of plate of 

 the value ofj^ioo for the winner. This his lord- 

 ship has continued to do, and nowadays a winner 

 has something to show in token of his victory. 

 The collar, a medallion with links attached, was 

 neither ornamental nor useful, and was held for 

 the year only. 



Comparing the present with the past, one 

 cannot help noticing the great increase in the 

 attendance at a Waterloo meeting, and, while 

 probably there never really are so many spec- 

 tators present as stated, the very large at- 

 tendance generally shows clearly that coursing 

 has not lost its hold as an interesting and popular 

 sport in Lancashire. 



The Altcar Club, or Society as it was then 

 called, was founded in 1825 and its early record 

 until the publication of Thacker is preserved in 

 a volume compiled by Mr. J. W. Swan, who 

 was secretary for some years. This record, with 

 Thacker and the Coursing Calendar, aided Mr. 

 David Brown, the keeper at that time of the 

 Greyhound Stud Book, to publish a very interesting 

 sketch of the club in its sixth volume; and the 

 writer of a book entitled Altcar Coursing Club, 

 1825-1887, published in the latter year, followed 

 in Mr. Swan's steps. Further records up to 

 the present can be traced in the Coursing 

 Calendar. At the club's first meeting no 

 stakes were run for, the programme consisting 

 of 23 matches. For some seasons small stakes 

 and a number of matches made up the 

 programmes. A letter to the Editor of the 

 Annals of Sporting in February 1826 gives an 

 interesting account of the meeting at which 

 stakes — though very small — were first run for : 



I beg to hand you the results of the second meet- 

 ing of our Club, which was held on the 14th of this 

 month, and, considering we are yet but young in our 

 progress, it went off with much spirit and created a 

 sufficiency of interest. H. B. Hoghton and E. G. 

 Hornby, Esqs., were the stewards and to their good 

 arrangements (made the eve of the meeting, at the 



473 



60 



