Hunting on the South Downs. 185 



double all the way^ and as fresh apparently as when 

 we started^ we reached the town in time to catch a 

 train to Brighton^ arriving in the damp^ moist, un- 

 pleasant state alluded to by Mr. Mantalini. But a 

 hot bath, an excellent dinner at Reichard's restaurant 

 — a new establishment to me — a good cigar, and 

 pleasant company, soon enabled me to say that I 

 fairly had the best of the weather, persistent as it was 

 in its attempts to spoil our sport. 



One lazy day intervenes, and again I am up with 

 the early birds, for the Brighton Harriers meet at 

 Water Hall, on the Downs, overlooking Shoreham. 

 Arriving, fortunately, in good time, I had only a 

 moment for an introduction to Mr. Dewe, the Master, 

 and to receive an invitation to visit the kennels be- 

 fore the hounds began to draw for a hare. A 

 prettier sight cannot be imagined than that I saw as 

 the twenty-one couples of beautiful hounds spread 

 over the hill-side whilst drawing the gorse. In 

 an instant there is " holloa ! ^^ and away they go 

 at a tremendous pace, the little chestnut horse, as 

 fresh as paint after a day^s rest, pulling double as 

 he goes at full speed down the steep incline, gal- 

 loping knee-deep in the green rape, regardless of 

 ridge and furrow ; but there was no time for thought 

 — it took me all I knew to live within a moderate 

 distance of them as they raced over hill and dale, 

 killing their hare in the open, after running her for 

 twenty minutes over a distance of some four or five 

 miles. Only a few were able to live with the 

 hounds; but conspicuous among that select few 

 was Miss Lottie Dupont, a little lady of some eight 

 or nine years of age, who, mounted upon Primrose, 



