A GLANCE AT ENGLISH PACKS 141 



Sussex, with eight packs, has fully its fair share of 

 hare-hunting ; still, in this wide county, there is 

 plenty of room for at least another half-dozen packs. 

 In the most easterly part of the county a foot-pack, 

 the Guestling foot-harriers, are to be found hunting. 

 They show, I believe, very good sport. The Bexhill 

 I have already said something about. Hunting a 

 most pleasant country, partly the good grass marshes 

 of Pevensey Level, partly undulating land, consisting 

 of grass, plough, and woodland, they are well stocked 

 with hares and show excellent sport. The pack, 

 consisting of seventeen and a half couples of twenty- 

 one-inch black and tan hounds, is a blend of the old 

 Southern harrier with a strain of bloodhound and 

 perhaps the least trace of foxhound, They have a 

 very fine deep cry, first-rate noses — as, indeed, they 

 ought to have — and plenty of pace. These qualities 

 ensure that they shall be successful harriers ; they 

 are well handled, and kill a large number of hares 

 each season. Mr. P. H. Trew, the present Master, 

 tells me that in the late Mr. Brook's time, when the 

 pack were all Southern harriers, these hounds hunted 

 very well so long as they were left alone. If, however, 

 a whip was cracked, they would sneak away and were 

 of little or no use for an hour or two. Former writers 

 speak of the timidity of the old-fashioned harrier, 

 and, where the ancient blood remains pure, it is, I 

 think, incontestable that harriers can stand much 

 less whip than foxhounds. This is a point worth 

 remembering by budding Masters of harrier packs. 

 Adjacent neighbours of the Bexhill are the Hailsham 

 foot-harriers, which hunt the western half of Pevensey 

 Marshes and a large area of country round Hailsham, 

 including the South Downs above Eastbourne. These 

 hounds, numbering twenty couples of nineteen-inch 

 harriers, are bred largely from Southern hound blood, 



