us that 'the old gamekeeper, Sam Parker, never failed to show abundance of hares, and used to slip all the dogs himself on horseback. He carried a small white stick in the slipping hand, with which he checked the too great energy of a dog in slips, and always when the hare was started increased the speed of his horse, so as to get the greyhounds in a stride before he loosed them.' To modern ideas this seems to have been a very curious arrangement, for the even delivery of a pair of greyhounds most certainly entails the use of both hands, and therefore it is difficult to understand how the horse was guided and controlled.
Following closely upon the establishment of the Ashdown Club similar institutions sprang into existence at Malton, Louth, Ilsley in Derbyshire, Newmarket, Beacon Hill, Letcombe-Bowers, Morfe, Deptford Inn, Amesbury, Burton-on-Trent, and in the year 1825 at Altcar, near Liverpool, prior to which date several clubs had arisen in Scotland. It is possible, too, that many other clubs, of less prominence than those I have mentioned, enjoyed a brief span of life; but when railways began to take the place of roads, coursing clubs in many places gave way to, or were crowded out by, open meetings, and one by one the old and once important coursing constitutions dropped out of existence. A notable exception was Altcar,
