I shall say some words about this remarkable
amusement, and I trust that gentle women who have in them the heart of
compassion, mothers who have sons to be ruined, fathers who have purses
to bleed, may aid in putting down an evil that gathers strength every
day.
Most of my readers know what the "sport" of coursing is; but, for the
benefit of strictly town-bred folk, I may roughly indicate the nature of
the pursuit as it was practised in bygone times. A brace of greyhounds
were placed together in the slips--that is, in collars which fly open
when the man who holds the dogs releases a knot; and then a line of men
moved slowly over the fields. When a hare rose and ran for her life, the
slipper allowed her a fair start, and then he released the dogs. The
mode of reckoning the merits of the hounds is perhaps a little too
complicated for the understanding of non-"sporting" people; but I may
broadly put it that the dog which gives the hare most trouble, the dog
that causes her to dodge and turn the oftenest in order to save her
life, is reckoned the winner. Thus the greyhound which reaches the hare
first receives two points; poor pussy then makes an agonized rush to
right or left, and, if the second dog succeeds in passing his opponent
and turning the hare again, he receives a point, and so on.
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