Biggs was a great man with Mr. Osbaldeston; he was a tall and thin bachelor, who rode like a lad at eighty; and had Billy-go-by-'em, and a half of the race horse, St. Lawrence. Say what they might, he would still be galloping, and "Now, Mr. Judge, don't take any notice of me riding to day!" used to be his first salutation to that official, when he trotted up. The two brothers, Will and Frank Long, who generally presided over the drawing, "belonged to David," and occupied very large farms under Sir Edward Antrobus ; Will, more especially, had a very large kennel, and both were very keen. Then there was Captain Besant, and the Etwalls, of whom Ralph was the foremost, in his light top coat, white cords, and boots which John Day and Danebury knew well. Smith trained and had a large share in his dogs, which all followed the E. His Egypt, brother to Lopez, was a plain, small, and "real Wiltshire dog," not clever in killing, but a rare sticker, and wrencher. Ebb was also a fine bitch, and beat Mocking Bird. It was not a long course, but Ebb was closer to her game, and outworked the popular black. Mr. Lawrence was wont to come with Lopez, a faster and handsomer dog than Egypt, from the Cotswold Hills; and Jennings, a farmer, who prided himself on his splendid pigs, brought out his dogs well, and backed them for a rattling stake.

We have not space to speak of half of the good coursing grounds in England; but we cannot pass by Sundorne.

"Kilve, thought I, is a favoured place,

And so is Liswyn Farm."

as Wordsworth sings, and Amesbury and Ashdown might do duty if the stanza were used in a coursing light. Still, perhaps, Sundorne, if the supply of hares could be depended upon, is a more delightful spot than any, with its old grass and elms,—the ancestral home of the Corbets, which brings back to foxhunting hearts the thoughts of Will Barrow, "another cheer for the blood of old Trojan," and the mouldering mullions of Haughmond Abbey. The coursing takes place in the park and on the home farms; the hares are all driven out of the ploughs, wood hurdles are placed against the wire fences, and the crowd have to stand like soldiers. Some of the finest coursing comes off just under where the hares are driven from the coppice, for a straight gallop across the park, and the little thorn tree, with the seat round it, where Tom Raper has often crouched in his red jacket, and bided his time, once with Riot and Hopbine, and again with Hopbine and Reveller in the slips, is as full of venerable associations in its way as "The Bushes" at Newmarket. The hare

must be a cracker, indeed, if she can reach the old oak refuge of Haughmond Hill.

But Mr. Corbet has gone, and Sundorne coursing days are not what he left them. His father hunted Shropshire as well as Warwickshire; and his Norman ancestor was not only "a most cunning marksman against hart or doe," but his valour at Acre secured from "Richard, the Lion Heart," permission to bear the two ravens on his shield. Another ancestor, one Peter Corbet, was a mighty hunter in the reign of Edward the First, who granted him letters patent to take wolves in the Royal Forests. Being thus bred, as it were, to every phase of the chace, it is no wonder that the late Mr. Corbet took to harriers as soon as he returned from college, and hunted five days a fortnight. He was also a staunch guardian of foxes, and very fond of private coursing, which Mr. Haughton and Mr. Robert Burton, of Longner, whose estate adjoined Sundorne, always shared with him. "The Squire " was a tall, good-looking man, and always dressed for these field days in a cut away black coat, Bedford cords, and long black Hessians. A chestnut roan cob was his favourite mount, and upon him, with his eyeglass affixed to his hat, no one enjoyed the sport more. His staff of coursing retainers were staunch enough to please Will Shakspeare, if he could have once more taken his "fallow greyhound" and gone forth to "find him a hare on Cotsale," as Morris the huntsman, Caywen the keeper, and Warwick the master of the horse, were the leading three. He had once

a

twenty brace of greyhounds, and four rare puppies, Cricketer, Coronet, Colonel, and Collie, in one season. Cricketer ran in Mr. Warwick's name, and won nearly 300/.; but Hughie Graham bowled him over in the Waterloo Cup.

Rich and poor, all lunched alike in the ruins of Haughmond Abbey on the public coursing days. They would begin to draw under the Ring Bank on the seeds and wheat, and come inside the drive on to the grass, and beat gradually up to the Abbey for one o'clock. Mr. Burton, in his white cords and green coat, and mounted upon one of his 16 st. hunters, was the field director. His claim was indisputable, even on mere kennel grounds, as he was the breeder of Mocking Bird by Figaro out of Malvina. She was sold at his sale for 9 or 10 gs., but run where she might, north or south, he was there

Mr. Warwick gave his maiden judgment at Coombe, in 1853, and wore the scarlet thrice at the Sundorne meetings, before his good master died. Canaradzo's year (1861) found him at the Waterloo meeting, and he has judged there ever since. Last season he judged 101 days, and decided 2677 courses.

to look on. He was very intimate with Mr. Lawrence. Butterfly, by Lopez, was another of his breeding. Mr. Randell's dogs bore a great part in the Sundorne Cup struggles. Mr. Nightingale still loves to tell of a run up between his Rival and Mr. Jebb's No Hurry. The hare at one time threaded the low clipped holly hedge just above the castle, and "to see the dogs jump it backwards and forwards, just like shuttlecocks in the air, was perfectly beautiful.” It was run off on the Drawbridge Field and The Springs, each of them about forty or fifty acres, and No Hurry killed and won the Cup. Riot and Avalanche was a capital give and take course under the Ring Bank, and the black bitch, who made two wrenches and a splendid kill, just had the best of it. Rhapsody had some rare racing stretches in a great course with Ajax, from the "Race Course."

The Challenge Cup (which was in reality a tea and coffee service of some 60%. value), to be run off between the winners of the Haughmond and the Pimley stakes, produced some very fine contests. This was in the autumn of 1856, when "The Squire” was on his death bed. He loved to hear of every course to the last, and each evening Mr. Warwick, who was first slipper and then judge, went to his bed side and told him of them, point by point. On the last occasion the recital had more than its wonted interest for his "approved good master." Reveller won the decider for the Pimley Stakes against a fawn dog, Judge, which was hardly in the course. Hopbine and Riot ran their last course for the Haughmond Stakes on the lawns before the castle. The hare was driven from the coppice, and every inch of the run was on grass. Hopbine, slightly favoured by the slip, led Riot to the hare, and was quite as clever in all the after work. The Challenge Cup was not run off till the next morning, and then only half-a-dozen met to see it at 8 A.M. It was fixed for that hour, that Mr. Warwick might go to judge at Chartley, and hence, although the rain came down in torrents, they were obliged to go to work. A hare was found in Gregory's Coppice, and the pair had a very long slip, and Hopbine led Reveller, with 5 to 4 on him, two lengths to his hare. The dog got the second turn, and then the bitch took possession, and drove her hare to Allbright Lea plantation and won.

The meeting dwindled away after the Squire and Mr. Burton died, but Mrs. Cartwright renewed it in 1864. It was there that she laid the seeds of the illness which killed her, and as she was too ill to go to Meg's Waterloo Cup, it was there that her active coursing life ended. There never was a more kindly and energetic woman. Her stakes were never advertised, and yet she always filled them.

Her meetings were Longford, Sundorne, Vale of Clwyd (where Sea Pink and Sea Foam came out and won) Talacre, Abergele, and Sudbury, where, as she used to tell with such pride, Ciologa went through a thirty-two dog stake, and had only one point made against her by Klaphonia. She thought that after that performance of Canaradzo's sister she must really give up her idol Riot in her favour. Oddly enough, she hated a large greyhound, and yet her house pet was Erystable, a 65 lb. one, by Beacon from Avalanche. He was given to her by Mr. Ainsworth, and had once the honour of beating Sea Rock in a bye at Abergele. She never ran

him in public, but yet she never left him at home; and her photograph was taken with him in her hand. We never knew a truer-hearted courser, and with her and Sundorne we may close our tale.

H. H. D.

VOL. II., N. S. 1869.

Q Q

ABBOTSFORD NOTANDA.

SIR WALTER SCOTT AND HIS FACTOR.

OOKING over the correspondence and other papers of my old friend William Laidlaw, long since deceased, and sleeping at the foot of a Highland hill-Tor Achiltyfar from his beloved Tweedside, it occurs to me that certain portions of the letters and memoranda might still possess interest to some readers, and not be without value to future biogra phers. Laidlaw, it is well-known, was factor, or steward, to Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, and also occasional amanuensis. Lockhart has done justice to his gentle, unassuming character and merits. Still, there are domestic details and incidents unrecorded, such as we should rejoice to have concerning Shakspeare at New Place, with his neighbouring hundred and seven acres of land, or from Horace, addressing the bailiff on his Sabine farm. Such personal memorials of great men, if sincere and correct, are seldom complained of, as Gibbon has observed, for their minuteness or prolixity.

William Laidlaw was a genuine Borderer, nine years younger than Scott. He was son of a farmer in Yarrow, fondly commemorated by Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. On arriving at manhood Laidlaw entered on extensive farming experiments; and, so long as the war lasted and high prices prevailed, his schemes promised to be ultimately successful. But with peace came a sudden fall in the market value of corn. He struggled on with adverse circumstances for a twelvemonth till capital and credit failed, and he was obliged to abandon his lease.

In the summer of 1817 we find him at Kaeside, on the estate of Abbotsford. At first this seemed a temporary arrangement. The two friends had kept up a constant intercourse after Scott's visit to the Yarrow in 1802. Presents of trout and blackcock from the country, and return presents of books from Castle Street, in Edinburgh, were interchanged; and, when Laidlaw's evil day was at hand, Scott said, "Come to Abbotsford, and help me with my improvements. I can put you into a house on the estate-Kaeside