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CHAPTEE XXIX. 



MR. EROOKS'S, OR THE BEX-HILL HARRIERS. 

 " The hounds of Taygetus, and ferocious echoes of Cithserou invite.'* 



Having given a description of one uncommon pack of harriers, 

 I will now endeavour to do the same with one of a totally 

 different kind. The Bex-hill, or Mr. George Brooks's harriers, 

 are as near the Southern hound, probably, as anything could be 

 found. He has had them all his life, and they have been in 

 the family for generations, hence he knows exactly how they 

 are bred, and informed me that in the north, about Lancashire, 

 there were still a few similar packs where he could get a change 

 of blood; nevertheless, they were not quite pure-bred Southern 

 hounds, though very nearly so. He also informed me that the 

 blue mottle colour, although frequent in these hounds, was not 

 invariably a mark of the breed, and, in fact, pointed out one of his 

 most promising puppies who was entirely wanting in it, being 

 of ordinary hound colour. Mr. Brooks hunts a very rough wood- 

 land, wild sort of country, in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Hastings — a bad country to ride over, for the land is heavy, 

 the fields small, and the fences rough, while the coverts are far 

 more plentiful than under ordinary circumstances one would 

 care to see in a hare-hunting country; nevertheless, it suits the 

 pack which hunt it admirably, and I doubt if it would be 

 possible to show so much sport in it with any other description 

 of hound. The Prince of Wales, when at Hastings a few years 

 ago, hunted with them, and is said to have been very pleased 

 with the sport shown by this remnant of what was formerly the 



