Highways and Byways in Sussex - online book

An illustrated appreciation, of the most interesting districts in Sussex.

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v                                    THE SUSSEX PACKS                                   47
"From his early inclination to fox-hounds, he soon became an experienced huntsman. His knowledge in the profession, wherein he had no superior, and hardly an equal, joined to his honesty in every other particular, recommended him to the service, and gained him the approbation, of several of the nobility and gentry. Among these were the Lord Conway, Earl of Cardigan, the Lord Gower, the Duke of Marl­borough, the Hon. M. Spencer. The last master whom he served, and in whose service he died, was Charles, Duke of Richmond, Lennox, and Aubigny, who erected this monu­ment in memory of a good and faithful servant, as a reward to the deceased, and an incitement to the living.
'Go, and do thou likewise.' (St. Luke, x. 37).
• Here Johnson lies ; what human can deny Old Honest Tom the tribute of a sigh ? Deaf is that ear which caught the opening sound ; Dumb that tongue which cheer'd the hills around. Unpleasing truth : Death hunts us from our birth In view, and men, like foxes, take to earth.' "
A few words on the packs of Sussex at the present time may be interesting in this connection. Chief is the Southdown Fox Hounds, a very fine, fast pack brought to a high state of perfec­tion by the late master, the Hon. Charles Brand. They hunt the open and hill country between the Adur and Cuckmere, between Haywards Heath and the sea. In the north are the Crawley and Horsham Fox Hounds, which have large wood­lands, high hedges, and some stiff ploughed soil to their less easy lot. The hounds are bigger and heavier than the South Downers. Smaller packs are Lord Leconfield's Fox Hounds, which have the Charlton country; the Eastbourne Fox Hounds, to which the East Sussex Fox Hounds allotted a share of the western part of their country east of the Cuck­mere ; and the Burstow and Eridge packs. Of Harriers, the best are the Brighton Harriers, so long hunted by Mr. Hugh Gorringe of Kingston-by-Sea, a very smart pack lately covering
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