Witch Hounds

"There's one thing I dare not do; I'd be afear'd to walk through that girt valley o'litlington after dark. It's a terrible ellynge place and a gurt black ghost hound walks there o'nights".
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Sussex Black Dog ghosts, the common name for which are 'Witch Hounds'.

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Despite sightings of Black Dogs, it was once a superstition in Sussex the ghosts of dogs are only seen by other dogs.

The Sussex historian M.A. Lower once said :

"Nearly every unfrequented corner has its Demon in the form of a Black Dog".

Litlington has two ghostly dogs, though only one of them black. The black dog ghost here has been seen several times on a full moon running from the Downs through "Town Fields" to look over the flint wall of the road before running back again. The second dog is white but had a reputation of being an omen of death or bad luck. The dog and his master, an heir to a local estate, were murdered by some farm labourers to supply them with drinking money. The Dog and his master were buried at the side of the road and the ghost of the dog appears on Midsummer Eve every seven years.

Just south-east Ditchling is a spur of the Downs called 'Blackdog Hill' which is haunted by the ghost of a headless black dog.

Source text: Sussex Archaeology & Folklore