The speed of the greyhound has been said to be equal to that of the fleetest horse. A singular circumstance, which occurred at Doncaster, proved that it was not much inferior. A mare cantering over the Doncaster course, her competitor having been withdrawn, was joined by a greyhound bitch when she had proceeded about a mile. She seemed determined to race with the mare, which the jockey humoured, and gradually increased his pace, until at the distance they put themselves at their full speed. The mare beat her antagonist only by a head. The race-horse is, perhaps, generally superior to the greyhound on level ground, but the greyhound would have the advantage in a hilly country.
Lord Rivers succeeded to Major Topham and Colonel Thornton, the owners of Major and Snowball, as the leading man on the course. His kennels at Strathfieldsaye were the pride of the neighbouring country. At first he bore away almost every prize, but breeding too much in and in, and for speed more than for stoutness, the reputation of his kennel considerably declined before his death.
In 1797 a brace of greyhounds coursed a hare over the edge of a chalk-pit at Offham, in Sussex. The hare and both the dogs were found dead at the bottom of the pit.
On another occasion a hare was chased by a brace of greyhounds: she was killed at the distance of seven miles from the place at which they started. Both of the dogs were so exhausted, that every possible assistance being given, they were with difficulty recovered.
The English greyhound hunts by sight alone; not because he is altogether devoid of scent, but because he has been taught to depend upon his speed, and that degree of speed which is utterly incompatible with the searching out of the scent. It is like a pack of hounds, running breast high, with the game in view. They are then running by sight, and not by scent, almost doubling their usual pace, and sometimes, from an unexpected turning of the fox or hare, thrown out for a little while. The hound soon recovers the track by his exquisite sense of smell. The English greyhound is never taught to scent his game, but, on the contrary, is called off the moment he has lost sight of the hare, the re-starting of which is left to the spaniel.