MR. BROOKS's, OR THE BEX-HILL HARRIERS. 319 



telegraphs, not to mention telephones and other wonderful 

 inventions of recent date. No doubt there I saw hare-hunting 

 hut little altered from what it was centuries ago, in all the more 

 wooded and enclosed parts of England ; and, truly, I must say- 

 that our ancestors were not much to be pitied concerning the 

 sport they had. On the contrary, I am sure that, to any man 

 really fond of hounds, such a day would prove as great a treat 

 as it did to me. There was something so genuine about it. 

 !N"o show, no parade, but withal such a genuine appreciation 

 of the sport from the squire down to the village cobbler, for I 

 believe I was indebted to that worthy son of St. Crispin for 

 the sundry short cuts and welcome nicks, which enabled me to 

 see so much. At any rate, whoever my guide may have been, 

 he proved a trustworthy one ; and although he beyond all doubt 

 earned his bread by the sweat of his brow, I am sure he was as 

 genuine a sportsman as ever followed hound, and from his 

 knowledge of country and the run of the game, I believe he 

 would, if born in other circumstances, have been a very queer 

 customer to shake off in any country. I honour a true sports- 

 man anywhere, and under any circumstances, and fortunate 

 as it proved for me that I chanced to fall in with him. I wish 

 fortune had placed him where he might have had the chance to 

 handle the horn himself either with fox-hounds or harriers. 



The huntsman, whip, or whatever he is called — by the way, 

 I believe his name is Joe, and not Jack — is a great character and 

 real good runner, though an elderly man. I only hope that 

 circumstances may yet again enable me to have a day over this 

 classic ground (for we killed where the Conqueror is supposed 

 to have landed), while aU I met on that occasion are in the 

 land of the living. That the old-fashioned hounds will ever 

 be replaced by another kind, while a Brooks holds Bex-hill, 

 I cannot believe. Long may they flourish to remind us what 

 hunting was like when men wore long wigs and rode on 

 demi-pique saddles. 



