258 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



called locally, that drain the levels. These slender 

 bridges are godsends to ladies and to the non-jumping 

 division who, with the aid of a " bat " — a long staff 

 affected by most marsh-traversers in this part of 

 Sussex — are enabled to cross readily enough. The 

 " bat " is quite a local institution among Sussex foot- 

 hunters. A staff, usually of hazel, wild cherry, or ash, 

 cut from some local woodland, it serves for various 

 purposes. It is an excellent aid in crossing these marsh 

 planks and beating coverts, and with a hat ele- 

 vated upon its apex serves, in place of the noisy and 

 disturbing view holloa, to call attention to the line 

 of the hare. If you are not among the hurrying divi- 

 sion, you may, leaning upon this excellent staff, gaze 

 restfuUy and contemplatively from some convenient 

 hill-side at all the features of the chase, stretching out 

 below you. I confess to a weakness for the rustic 

 staff of Sussex, although I belong, naturally, to the 

 more active division of foot-hunters. The Sussex 

 " bat " seems to be a very ancient aid to hare-hunting 

 in these parts. I find reference to it in old accounts 

 of the chase of the hare in the Weald of Sussex in the 

 days when Southern hounds were used. In this part 

 of the county, and elsewhere, especially about Hors- 

 ham, much of the hunting seems to have been done 

 on foot. Certainly at the pace the old Southern 

 hound went, and with his absurd deliberation, the 

 man on foot could have had no great difhculty in 

 keeping up during the long five and six hour chases 

 in which our ancestors seem to have delighted. " Bats" 

 were, however, occasionally used for other purposes. 

 In one of the last encounters between smugglers and 

 preventive officers on the coast of East Sussex, a cargo 

 was about to be run and the officers had assembled 

 to prevent it. A number of smugglers and their 



