The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository, Volume 1 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

GREYHOUND

.—The particular species of DOG passing under the denomination of greyhound, was formerly called GAZEHOUND, and is at the present day more universally known by the appellation of LONG DOG in many parts of the kingdom. The breed has been at all times carefully cultivated by the lovers of coursing, but has never been brought to so great a degree of enthusiastic perfection, as since the establishment of the different COURSING CLUBS and SOCIETIES in Norfolk, Essex, Berkshire, and the Flixton Wolds of Yorkshire. The members of each have, with an unremitting perseverance, endeavoured to excel each other with an unalloyed spice of SPORTING EMULATION: the late Lord Orford; the Marquis of Townsend; Colonel Thornton, of Thornville Royal; Major Topham, of the Wolds, and the Reverend H. Bate Dudley, of the Bradwell and Tillingham Club, in Essex, are those who have excelled every competitor, and improved the breed to the highest possible state of perfection.

Czarina was bred by the late Lord Orford; Jupiter and Claret, by Colonel Thornton; Snowball, by Major Topham; Miller, by the Reverend H. B. Dudley; and Schoolboy, by the celebrated Mr. (Vauxhall) Clarke. Czarina, the grand-dam of Snowball, was purchased at the late Lord Orford's sale by Colonel Thornton, with an intent to improve the breed, in which he was not disappointed. She won FORTY-SEVEN matches in Norfolk, Wiltshire, and Yorkshire, and never was beat. She displayed no signs of producing progeny till thirteen years old, when she brought forth eight whelps, got by Jupiter, who all lived, and ran in high form.

Snowball was got by Claret, (one of the eight whelps of Czarina,) and supposed to be, taken "for all in all," the surest dog to kill and take up that ever ran. He won FOUR CUPS, COUPLES, and upwards of thirty matches; one of which was so severe, that his opponent (a dog of Mr. Plumer's) died immediately after the course. Claret was got by young Jupiter, out of old Czarina; he challenged all Yorkshire, which was twice accepted; one match he won; and received forfeit for the other.

That truly celebrated dog, the Miller, was so large, awkward, and clumsey, when a puppy, that he had been nearly thrown aside, and not thought worthy of being brought into the field; but a friend of Mr. Dudley's having borrowed him, took him to the Marshes at St. Osyth, where, at only twelve months old, he won several matches in one day against the best dogs in the field. Having thus accidentally ran himself into reputation, he was, at his return, introduced to more powerful, at least more popular, opponents, where, however, he for SEVEN YEARS maintained his superiority, during SEVENTY-FOUR successive MATCHES, without having been beaten. He is at present a stallion in great estimation, as all the stock he has yet produced are excellent runners.

Schoolboy was of great celebrity; he was bred by Sir C. Bunbury, and got by Dr. Frampton's Fop, out of Sir Charles's Miss: he ran a great number of MATCHES for very considerable sums, particularly over Newmarket, and never was beat. Several of his get have been sold for twenty guineas each, as Troy, Traveller, and Lilly; all very good runners.

Mr. Daniel, who, in his "Rural Sports," has given most beautiful and admirably executed portraits of Czarina, Maria, Venus, and Claret, engraved by Scott, has also introduced the following, as a criterion of comparative speed between the race-horse and the greyhound. "A match was to have been run over Doncaster course, in the December of 1800, for one hundred guineas; but one of the horses having been drawn, a mare started alone, to make good the bet, and, after having gone the distance of about a mile, a greyhound bitch started from the side of the course, and ran with her the other three miles, keeping nearly head to head, which produced a singular race; and when they reached the distance post, five to four was betted on the GREYHOUND; when they came to the stand, it was even betting; but the mare won by about a head."

A variety of singular occurrences respecting the invincible ardour and velocity, as well as persevering fortitude, of greyhounds, might be introduced, but a few must suffice. In February, 1800, a brace of GREYHOUNDS coursed a hare upwards of four miles in a straight line from where she was found, (exclusive of turns,) when she ran herself dead before she was touched by the dogs.

A famous dog of the Reverend Mr. Corsellis, who chanced to be wind-bound at Dover, coursed a hare, who had beat a variety of pursuers in that neighbourhood, when the dog proved so superior to her in speed, and pressed her so close, that she ran immediately for the cliff, as her only chance of escaping; but the greyhound threw at, and caught her at the brink, going with her in his mouth to the bottom of the precipice, where they were literally dashed to pieces. In 1797, a brace of greyhounds coursed a hare over the edge of a chalk-pit, at Offham, in Sussex, and both hare and dogs were found dead at the bottom. In December, 1794, a company of gentlemen were coursing at Finchingfield, in Essex, when a hare was started, and a brace of greyhounds starting from two different points, ran against each other with so much violence that they both died on the spot.

The greyhound is always mild and inoffensive, and his fidelity cannot be better described than in the words of the unfortunate Charles I. who said, amidst his courtiers, during his troubles, that "the GREYHOUND had all the good-nature of the SPANIEL, without his fawning."