N THE Anglo-Saxon mind there hangs over Russia, its steppes, its people and its pastimes, a shroud of mystery, a feeling that medieval conditions exist in the realm of the Czar as in no other portion of the civilized world. A wierd romantic halo seems to surround the story of the steppe or the forest, and based on actual conditions this feeling has some real ground for existence. In the world of sport in America there are but few pastimes which date back many scores of years, but in Russia some of the sports have been handed down from the nomad days of the peoples whose blood now flows in the Slav race, and amongst these perhaps the most picturesque are falconry and coursing, two sports which have existed since man was man and had need of food. Coursing may justly be called the Russian national sport, not but that coursing exists in other countries, but the method of procedure in Russia is a method of its own.

   In the old days, before the freedom of the serfs in '61, there were many noblemen who had from several hundred to a thousand dogs in their kennels; these were principally of two breeds, the borzoi or Russian greyhounds, called in America Russian wolf-hounds and fox hounds.

   At the present day owing to the changed conditions, there are but few large kennels left in Russia, but one, that of H. I. H., the Grand Duke Nicholas, contains to-day five hundred hounds, and may be said to be the finest kennel in the world.

   To reach almost any nobleman's estate in Russia one has recourse to return to original methods, taking a carriage journey of anywhere from a dozen to a hundred versts and not an uninteresting experience it is.

   The best hunting estates are situated to the south of Moscow, where the country is open and marshes infrequent in the great provinces of Tula and Tamboff. After perhaps a night's journey on the railroad from Moscow one alights from the train to a breakfast of "chai and kleb" in the neat railway restaurant, and without further delay is escorted to the carriage of his host to which are harnessed three or four gray, black or roan stallions abreast. In some instances the seigneur has a liking for some particular color in horse flesh. In the case of the Grand Duke Nicholas all the carriage and hunting horses are strawberry roans.
 
 

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