NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



have known and hunted with many sportsmen born far 

 back in the eighteenth century. He will be remembered 

 by those who have hunted with him for at least another 

 forty or fifty years. A real link with the past ! 



Foxes upon the Sussex downs have plenty of good 

 feeding. Rabbits, their favourite food, are abundant 

 and always at hand. Poultry, by way of pleasant 

 change, are, of course, not difficult to be obtained at the 

 various farmhouses and villages nestling in the hollows 

 and among the shoulders of these hills. But foxes do 

 not disdain fish, and both they and their cousins, the 

 jackals, in maritime districts undoubtedly pick up 

 many a dainty along the shore. They will devour 

 beetles freely, especially, as the famous master of 

 hounds, Tom Smith, declared, in the neighbourhood 

 of the New Forest. Young lambs in the down country 

 — and indeed in most countries — require careful looking 

 after, although it is probable that far more sheep and 

 lambs are killed by the fox's first cousin, the dog, than 

 by the fox himself. Badgers are well-known inhabit- 

 ants of these regions, and the otter, found in the Cuck- 

 mere and other streams, was last season, for the first 

 time within the memory of man, hunted in this part of 

 Sussex. 



Between Birling Gap and Seaford lies the Cuckmere 

 Haven, where the little river of that name discharges 

 itself into the sea. Years ago this used to be a favourite 

 locality for smugglers and wildfowl. The smugglers 

 have gone, and the wildfowl are sadly reduced in 

 numbers ; but near the estuary and up the marshy 

 valley towards the old-fashioned village of Alfriston 

 some interesting shore birds are, especially in hard 

 winters, to be met with. The Cuckmere threads its 

 way into the sea at low water in a small but most 

 pellucid current through a bed of shingle. To me 



306 



