Ashdown Park, Malton, and other clubs founded in the latter years of the last century, the membership was also very small, and none but members could enter dogs at the meetings. It was not until about half a century ago that the first public open coursing meeting was held in Glasgow. How numerous such meetings have become since then we all know nowadays, when the doings of greyhounds at all sorts of gatherings from lordly Altcar to the humblest local meeting fill up the gap in sporting life between the close and the opening of the legitimate racing season. With the absorbing attention given to match-coursing nowadays, private coursing and the merry gatherings it gave rise to are in danger of falling aside: and yet one cannot help thinking how much more real sport there was with Arrian after his fine bitch Horme, or out wi' the grews on the Ettrick hills with Christopher North and the Shepherd, than at public coursing meetings nowadays, with all their sordid accompaniments subordinating all interests to that of betting. وو Lockhart, in his "Life of Scott," records one of these pleasant coursings on Newark Hill, in which Sir Walter, with Sir Humphry Davy, Dr. Wollaston, Mackenzie, "the Man of Feeling," and a merry party of other guests took part. "A faithful sketch of what you at this instant see," said Lockhart to Sir William Allan the painter, as they were starting from Abbotsford, "would be more interesting a hundred years hence than the grandest so-called historical painting that you will ever exhibit at Somerset House." Coursing on such a mountain as Newark Hill is not like the same sport over a set of firm English pastures. There were gulfs to be avoided and bogs enough to be threaded; many a stiff nag stuck fast-many a bold rider measured his length among the peat bogs, and another stranger to the ground besides Davy plunged neck deep into a treacherous well-head, which, till they were floundering in it, had borne all the appearance of a piece of delicate green turf. When Sir Humphry emerged from his involuntary bath, his habiliments garnished with mud, slime, and mangled water-cresses, Sir Walter received him with a triumphant Encore! But the philosopher had his revenge, for joining soon afterwards in a brisk gallop, Scott put Sibyl Grey to a leap beyond her prowess, and lay humbled in the ditch, while Davy, who was better mounted, cleared it and him at a bound. Happily there was little damage done." Scott was always a passionate lover of coursing, and nothing delighted him more, as he often tells us, than to take part in the great annual coursing day, "the Abbotsford Hunt," or "at humbler sport," with a friend or two, after his Greyhounds true. O'er holt or hill there never flew, Loudly have been sung the praises of many a gallant greyhound. Horme and Laelaps, Snowball, Maida and Bonny Heck, with the more modern heroes like Cerito and Master M'Grath, triple winners of the Waterloo Cup; but certainly never was hare immortalised except the Hare of Balchristy, hero of this amusing anecdote told by Scott : "There was a coursing club once upon a time which met at Balchristy, in the Province, or as it is popularly called, the Kingdom of Fife. The members were elderly social men, to whom a very moderate allowance of sport served as an introduction to a hearty dinner and jolly evening. Now, there had been sent on the ground where they usually met, a certain large, stout hare, who seemed made on purpose to entertain these moderate sportsmen. She usually gave the amusement of three or four turns, as soon as she was put up-a sure sign of a strong hare, when practised by any beyond the age of a leveret then stretched out in great style, and after affording the gentlemen an easy canter of a mile or two, threw out the dogs by passing through a particular gap in an enclosure. : This sport the same hare gave to the same party for one or two seasons, and it was just enough to afford the worthy members of the club a sufficient reason to be alleged to their wives, or others whom it might concern, for passing the day in the public-house. At length a fellow who attended the hunt, nefariously thrust his plaid into the gap I mentioned, and poor puss, her retreat being thus cut off, was in the language of the dying Desdemona, 'basely, basely murdered.' The sport of the Balchristy Club seemed to end with this famous hare. They either found no hares, or such as afforded only a halloo and a squeak, or such, finally, as gave them further runs than they had pleasure in following. The spirit of the meeting died away, and at length it was altogether given up. "The publican was, of course, the party most especially affected by the discontinuance of the club, and regarded, it may be supposed, with no complacency the person who had prevented the hare from escaping, and even his memory. One day, a gentleman asked him what was become of such a one, naming the obnoxious individual. He is dead, sir,' answered mine host, with an angry scowl, and his soul kens this day whether the Hare of Balchristy got fair play or not."" 195 CHAPTER XVI. BELTANE. At Beltane game Thou ledst the dance with Malcolm Græme.-Lady of the Lake. LONG after the Druids were no more, and when Christianity had become established in Britain, many of the superstitions connected with the old fire-worship lingered among the people. So tenaciously did they cling to these old rites, that it is probable the early Christian priesthood made a virtue of necessity, and grafted on to the ceremonial of their faith modified forms of the old customs, endeared to their converts by lifelong observance. To this day, in some places, we find curious remains of these ancient rites in usages which the people, though ignorant of their origin and meaning, still periodically observe. No clearer link of this kind between present and remote past exists than the observances of La Bealtuinn, or Beltane, as practised in Scotland till within the recollection of living people, and which, indeed, are not yet wholly extinct in remote districts. In the days of the Druids the first of May was the great festival in honour of Belus or Baal. From the sacred fires on the altars mighty fires were lighted on the hill-tops, through which were driven all the four-footed beasts of the district. The cattle were merely driven through, not sacrificed, and the object of the ceremony was partly to expiate the sins of the people, but chiefly to keep away from the herds all disorders till next May-day. On this day, too, all the hearth fires in the district were extinguished, in order that they might be rekindled from this purifying flame. From these circumstances, this day was called "La Beilteine," the day of Belus' fire. As lately as 1790, we know that in the West of Scotland the cow-herds and young people in the country districts used to kindle these fires on the high grounds, in honour of Beltane; while in many other parts of the country we find observances that, even more clearly still, point to the rites of the sun-god's worship. Several of the clerical contributors to Sir John Sinclair's "Statistical Account of Scotland," published at the end of last century, allude to the Beltane usages in their parishes; but the most detailed account is that given by the Rev. James Robertson, the minister of the parish of Callander, in Perthshire, who, writing in 1791, says :— "The people of this district have two customs, which are fast wearing out, not only here but all over the Highlands, and therefore ought to be taken notice of while they remain. Upon the first of May, which is called Beltane or Baltein-day, all the boys in a township or hamlet meet on the moors. They cut a table in the green sod of a round figure, by casting a trench in the ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal until it be perfectly black. They then put all the bits of cake into a bonnet. Everyone, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet is entitled to the last bit; whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore in rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast. There is little doubt of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered in this country as well as in the East, although they now pass from the act of sacrifice, and only compel the devoted person to leap three times |