Page:The Hare.djvu/203

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PUBLIC COURSING
175

somewhat lowly placed in the social scale. Still, the spirit of sport is the same, and there never were such fellows as the Durham miners for preserving hares. In a coursing neighbourhood every miner is ex officio a gamekeeper, and not many years ago I saw thirteen courses from five acres of turnips in a field which adjoined a 'pit heap,' the summit of which was crowned with a crowd of men, women, and children, probably two thousand strong.

In Yorkshire, the North Riding and the northern part of the East Riding have plenty of coursing meetings. In the first-named locality the North of England Club rules the roast, but farther south the Yorkshire Club does duty, and seems to be a most flourishing institution. The best ground I ever coursed over in the county was the Seamer estate of Lord Londesborough, near Scarborough; but Rainton is very good, too, and the beats are so managed that most of the running is over grass. There used to be important meetings at Market Weighton (very flinty wold country), but they have fallen off of late years, and I imagine that very little coursing now takes place in the East Riding.

Nor are the Scotch meetings what they were, as Carmichael alone puts forth a big programme nowadays. But in Ireland there seems to be little change;