SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Journal of March, 1759, appears the following 

 advertisement : 



NOTICE is HEREBY GIVEN to all Gentlemen and 

 Sportsmen that there is to be a Hind turned out at 

 Stanmer, on Friday, the 9th of this instant March, 

 at nine o'clock in the morning, by their humble 

 servant, 



JOHN MOCKFORD. 



Brighthelmston, March 5, 1759. 



N.B. The Hind is to be hunted by Brighthelm- 

 ston and Henfield Hounds. 



This style of hunting, 'for the diversion of 

 the gentry who frequent Brighthelmston,' seems 

 to have been pursued at intervals until the end of 

 the 1 8th century. The Rev. Mr. Wenham, of 

 Hamsey, near Lewes, a great hunting parson, 

 who kept a pack of hounds, often ran a deer. 

 In May, 1770, he had one turned out at Stan- 

 mer, which afforded a great run of 30 miles. 

 Towards the end of the i8th century Brighton 

 was becoming a highly fashionable resort and 

 frequent attempts were made to amuse the visitors 

 by tame deer hunting. It cannot be said that 

 these chases were often successful. In February, 

 1779, Sir John Lade, a notorious sporting per- 

 sonage of that time, and a friend of the Prince 

 of Wales, turned out a hind on Newmarket Hill, 

 The deer quickly took to the sea at Newhaven 

 and swam out a mile, and, though she was 

 eventually recaptured the day's sport came to an 

 untimely end. In 1780 the Duke of Cumber- 

 land had a stag turned out on the Steine, at 

 Brighton. There was an immense gathering of 

 spectators, but the stag jumping over the cliff at 

 Rottingdean was killed on the spot. Another 

 deer turned out before the duke's hounds a few 

 days later, near Patcham, made for a sewer at 

 Lewes, and subsequently, after soiling in various 

 brooks, was taken at Chinton, where she died 

 next day. Lord Barrymore, another notorious 

 character of the period, turned out a stag on 

 'Brighthelmston' race-course in 1788. The 

 whole proceeding was a fiasco. The stag began 

 by grazing, and then, after the application of 

 whips, knocked down a shepherd, ran into a 

 house at Patcham and was taken in the pantry. 



THE SOUTH COAST STAGHOUNDS 



This pack, established by Mr. H. G. Kay, 

 in 1895, with kennels at Bedhampton, near 

 Havant, showed fair sport for several seasons. 

 They consisted of 15 couples of hounds, and 

 hunted two days a week. In the following 

 season, 1896-7, they hunted deer one day a 

 week and hare the other. Mr. Kay hunted his 

 own hounds. After a lamentable accident, in 

 which the deer, leaping into a chalk quarry, was 

 killed, with several couple of hounds, the pack 

 was given up at the conclusion of the season 

 1901-2. 



THE WARNHAM STAGHOUNDS 



These hounds, of which Mr. H. C. Lee Steere, 

 of Jayes Park, Ockley, Surrey, is master, belong 

 to Surrey, but they hunt in the Crawley and 

 Horsham and the northern portion of Lord 

 Leconfield's country. Pulborough and Henfield 

 are the meets at which they penetrate farthest 

 into Sussex. The hunt possesses 22 couples of 

 hounds and 22 deer. The minimum subscrip- 

 tion is j25, and casual strangers are capped a 

 sovereign. 



The Surrey Staghounds also make occasional 

 incursions into Sussex. 



HARRIERS 



Hare hunting in Sussex boasts very high anti- 

 quity. The gentry and yeomen hunted the 

 hare with established packs long before fox-hunt- 

 ing proper came into existence. In the Weald 

 and marshes, where the old-fashioned, deep- 

 toned southern hound was in use centuries ago, 

 great sport was enjoyed, and upon the downs 

 somewhat lighter hounds were in use. Sussex, 

 especially in the Weald country, was long famous 

 for its breed of heavy, deep-flewed, long-eared 

 harriers, of the now rare blue-mottled colour, 

 and strong traces of this excellent hound are to 

 be found in the present Hailsham pack, as well 

 as among the Sandhurst harriers, hunting in the 

 south-west of the adjacent county of Kent. In 

 the Weald these hounds were often hunted on 

 foot, and as it was termed ' under the pole.' 

 Our ancestors enjoyed a long spun-out chase, 

 and the huntsman in this district often had his 

 hounds under such control, that by throwing 

 down his hunting pole in front of them he 

 would bring them to a check, until the hare 

 having gained a fresh start, the chase was allowed 

 to continue. On this leisurely system the hunt 

 was often protracted to four or five hours, or 

 even more, and the close of a short winter's 

 afternoon saw the big 26 in. harriers still in 

 pursuit. 



Daniel, in his Rural Sports, quoting from an 

 earlier writer, thus speaks of the deep-tongued, 

 thick-lipped, broad, and low-hung southern 

 hounds : 



He that delights in a six hours' chase, and to be up 

 with the Dogs all the time, should breed from the 

 Southern Hound first mentioned, or from that heavy 

 sort which Gentlemen use in the Weald of Sussex ; 

 their cry is a good and deep base music, and, con- 

 sidering how dirty the country is, the diversion they 

 afford for those who are on foot for a day together, 

 renders them in high estimation ; they generally pack 

 well from their quality of speed, and at the least Default, 

 every nose is upon the ground in an instant to recover 

 the scent. 



Towards the end of the eighteenth century 

 these old-fashioned hounds were falling out of 



449 



57 



