HUNTING WITH FOOT-HARRIERS 259 



local adherents, however, fell upon the officers with 

 bats and so mishandled them that they drove them 

 off, left one of their number for dead, and success- 

 fully ran their contraband. This happened no more 

 than about eighty years ago, at Little Common, on 

 the edge of the marshes, between Bexhill and Pevensey. 

 The beginnings of some of the old-fashioned foot- 

 hunting packs of harriers, in the days when hounds 

 were trencher-fed, must have been often singular 

 enough. Mr. C. Garnett, of the Holcombe Harriers, 

 has unearthed a document, dating from the year 1773, 

 which gives a curious picture of the internal economy 

 of such a pack. The document from which my ex- 

 tracts are given embodies the rules of the Hunt for 

 that season. The extracts run as follows : 



Holcombe. Nov. 25, 1773. 



1st. Mr. Holt Brown to be the conductor of the Dogs for 

 this season. No person in the society to call for the hounds 

 to hunt in any particular Place, or at any Time without giving 

 notice to the Dog-Lad in writing and his consent. Too (sic) 

 days in a week till Old Candlemas to be hunting-days, the 

 weather allowing it. 



2nd. John Kay to be huntsman ; to have wastecoat, 

 Breeches, Stockings, and a pair of Shoos gratis ; to have a 

 Cap lent this season ; to have is 6d per day of hunting ; 

 to have is extraordinary, for every Hair (sic) he shall kill ; 

 and to call the Dogs off the Chace at the request of the Dog- 

 Lad or any other subscriber if he can, or else forfeit that 

 day's Wages. 



3rd. Every person who shall keep a Dog to enter it as one 

 of the Pack (living in the Manor) and not to be at liberty to 

 withdraw or dispose of it to any other Person wile the Society 

 continue to hunt togr. and to have each an Hare if requested 

 and possible to be got. 



4th. Every Person who shall keep a Dog, etc. and attempt 

 to destroy Hares etc. exclusive of and in opposition to the 

 Society, in this Manor to be prosecuted according to the law, 

 and the Huntsman or any other Person who can and shall 

 convict them thereof to have 5s over and above the allowance 



