The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-05
HOUNDS oUrRUN BIZ A HARE.
Major Topham's Hare Leaves His
Friends Grayhonnds In the
Lurch.
TL0ndon Telegraph

EIhtAu'h UEay nOhhsAs Az hAAC
Lurch.
ILondon Telegraph
1t has often been debated whether the
fleetness and stoutness of good hare are
greater than those of first class grey
hound. The best hares in England are
said 10 be those of the wolds of the East
Riding of Yorkshire, and here it was that
the celebrated Major Topham, of Void
Cottage, near Nation, loved to maintain
that he could find 8 hare any morning
capable of showing her heels to the best
pair Of grayhounds that were ever
slipped, even though his own champion
dog, SNOWFALL, were in the leash.
Not long before Major Topham's
death, in 1920, a DO stful lover of the
leash came to Nation to pass few days
with the owner of Void Cottage. The
visitor talked loudly of the marvellous
superiority Of two greyhounds which he
had brought with him, and when Major
Topham expressed his opinion that on
the morrow he would find hare which
his friends greyhounds could not touch,
a bet of twenty guinaes to one was laid
by the hacker of the dogs against hare
whose form was well known to the Ma
jor, seeing that he had often slipped
SNOWFALL in pursuit of her, and always
without success.
On the morrow the hare was found in
her usual seat in fallow field, and away
she went, keeping to the top of the
ridge, while the two dogs in pursuit ran
in the burrows, one to the right and the
other to the left of the ridge, along
which the quarry held her flying course.
At first it seemed that the dogs were
gaining upon her, since the hare is the
most cunning of all animals which trust
to their speed for safety. Shortly, she
ran throu IN a hedge which bounded the
the fallow field, and VIII ch the two dogs
flew in their stride. But having left the
hedge behind her, the hare knew well
that the moment had arrived for putting
on the speed.
A broad down, with crisp grass, and
sloping gently upward for three miles,
was before her, and here it was that
upon manv previous occasions she had
left Major Tophams best dogs far in the
lurch. Carefully watching her pursuers
she then began to increase her speed, and
before mile was traverSed the two dogs
were beaten off two hundred yards. As
it is the peculiarity of grayhounds, or
gaz hounds, that they abandon the pur-
suit when they can no longer see the ami
NAL they are chasing, Major Topham
was inexpressibly entertained when his
friends dogs were observed to stop and
to raise themselves on their long hind
legs, as is their fashion when unsi shted.
When the Major and his friend came
up with them, they were standing with
their tongues out and looking at each
other, while the flying hare was at the
top of the hill. Not long afterward she
was shot by neighbor from behind a
hedge, to the great modification of the
Major, who vowed that no dog that was
ever born could live with her upon the
Yorkshire wolds. She was carefully
weighed after death, and was found to
wei gh l0} pounds. Such was her fame
that well known sporting writer Of the
past, who, under the nom de plume of
"Martingale," was constant contributor
some forty years since to the Doncaster
Gazette, openly ayowed his belief that,
con comparison of the speed of the hare
with that Of the graybound, the feetest
hare will defeat the feetest dog"