Beagle

“ Every man has a right to his own opinion, and mine is that the perfection of hare-hunting is with beagles. The average hare is overmatched by the modern harrier. The beagle is not too fast, his nose is finer, he far excels the harrier in vigilance, energy, and persistency, whilst the music of a pack of beagles is unequalled. ”

“ The beagle, which has always his nose to the ground, will puzzle for a length of time on one spot, sooner than he will leave the scent. The foxhound, on the contrary, full of life, spirit, and high courage, is always dashing and trying forward. The beagle, however, has extraordinary perseverance, as well as nicety of scent, and also a liveliness of manner in hunting, which, joined to its musical and melodious note, will always afford pleasure to the lovers of the chase, or at least to those who are unable to undertake the more exciting sport of fox-hunting. ”

“ The leading features of Harriers are long heads, free from “stop,” square muzzles, sloping shoulders, straight forelegs, round cat-like feet, short backs, well sprung ribs, strong loins, and sound hindquarters with well bent stifles.
BEAGLE Color: Blue mottle, black tan and white, black and tan, lemon and white or any other hound color.
Height: 15 in.
The beagle is without doubt one of the oldest distinct breeds we have.
Beagles to be very choice can scarcely be bred too small. Although far inferior in speed to the harrier the sense of smelling is equally if not more exquisite in the beagle. ”

“ It is a physiological peculiarity which leads the Greyhound to chase its prey by sight,—that enables the Beagle to track it by the scent,—that impels the Terrier to its rat-hunting propensity,—and that leads the Retriever to its habit of retrieving. ”

“ A long little beagle, a long little scissor of a kind that has choice all this makes a collation.
All winter is dutiful. All the short stays are digestion. All lines are cylindrical that means that there is leading.
Any roast is not leading. Enough pale ways are scratched.
Spend a height all up and only pup, spend it with the soon. ”

“ Still, the infant beagle has a marvellous appetite for sponges, brushes, and all sorts of indigestible household requisites, and he will besides be credited by the servants with even more mischief than he really works. ”

“ The smaller ones—Pocket Beagles in particular—are lovely little Hounds, and to the sportsman who [182] loves hunting on foot, they are ideal field companions.
Typical specimens of the breed are, in our opinion, handsome; their symmetrical form and workmanlike appearance carry an irresistible charm into the heart of the rabbit-hunter.
There is also the Rough-coated Beagle, and for these a class is usually provided at the Kennel Club and Cruft shows, in London. ”

“ The beagle is the blood-hound, only of smaller size; and often these beautiful diminutive creatures suffer in parturition, or throw pups whose size takes from them all value. However, for the chance of security, if for no more tangible object; let the dog, in every instance, be smaller than the bitch; and let it also have no disease, but be in perfect health, strong and lively. A dog in any way deformed or affected with any disorder ought to be avoided. Blindness, skin eruptions, piles, paralysis of the tongue, and a host of other annoyances, I more than suspect to be hereditary. ”

“ Amongst amateurs of hunting, beagles were so carefully selected in point of size, that they seldom exceeded ten or eleven inches in height; and they were so well matched with respect to speed, that during the chase a good pack might be covered with a sheet. This is with all kinds of hounds a sure mark of excellence.
Although beagles are slow in speed, they are uncommonly eager; for, if the scent lies well, a hare has little chance of escape from them. ”

“ On the subject of Beagle Drag-Hunting at Schools, I think you will be pleased to know that we have owned and run a pack of beagles at this school for the last ten years on the lines that you suggest, and with the greatest success. The drag affords any amount of healthy and interesting exercise without cruelty. Ours is just an ordinary preparatory school, with ten masters and ninety boys. Our hounds are twenty-three or twenty-four in number. ”

“ Doubtless the rearing of a Harrier puppy is a great responsibility, but it is also a delight to many who feel that they are helping in the advancement of a great national sport.
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There is nothing to surpass the beauty of the Beagle either to see him on the flags of his kennel or in unravelling a difficulty on the line of a dodging hare. In neatness he is really the little model of a Foxhound. He is, of course, finer, but with the length of neck so perfect in the bigger hound, the little shoulders of the same pattern, and the typical quarters and second thighs. ”

“ Then burst out the joyous howl of the beagles—here and there, as if every one of them had started his own particular game; the yelping bark rising at times sharp and clear as if in the immediate neighbourhood, at other times fading away into the distance. The fun had commenced. First there came trotting along a long-necked, thin-legged doe, with a little fawn by her side; and these, catching sight of Will, made a sharp turn to the right and bore down upon the Count. ”

“ Then we went in where we could hear each other without screaming, and the lady tells me more about it, and how beagles is her last hope of her chits ever amounting to anything in the great world of sport. If they don't go in keenly for beagles she'll just have to give up and let Nature take its course with the poor things. And she said these was A-Number-One beagles, being sure to get a rabbit if one was in the country. ”

“ With the beagles we imitated the hare, who is a ringing, not straight-running animal, lifting the scent, doubling back, and so on, and, in fact, we brought thus two competitors into the sport—i.e., the drag-layer versus the huntsman, and pitted their wiles and their cunning against each other. I may be accepted as an authority, as few have perhaps ridden in harder-fought hunting runs of all kinds than I—fox, stag, harrier, guanaco, ostrich, and suchlike—and I have had considerable experience with beagles as well, on foot. ”

“ The beagle has not its equal for routing out the fox from its hole. Its gait, which is almost a crawl, enables it to penetrate the farthest corners of the fox’s abode. If it finds the malodorous animal there, it gives voice and holds the place with tooth and nail while allowing the hunters time to break into the fox-hole and capture the chicken-stealer. ”

“ The beagle is in every sense of the word a miniature foxhound, ranging in height from nine to fifteen inches which is the maximum; dogs over this height are disqualified at bench shows and beagle trials. The classification in vogue at the present time is dogs thirteen inches and under, and dogs over thirteen and not over fifteen inches. ”

“ Hounds, then often disappointed, required blooding with a bagged hare or rabbit, neither ever giving a decent run; and I disliked the job all the more because Sussex had shown me a better way of using beagles for rabbits; and I thought of the hours spent with my gun in a ride while real beagles hustled rabbits round and round a big wood. Tiring perhaps of these ‘bags’ we yield to a suggestion, made I think by Joby Minor, that a badger would give us more fun, certainly more scent, and would always live to fight beagles another day. ”

“ Hunting is a foremost sport all over the world, and there can be little wonder that the spirit and standing of the peoples may be gauged from the quality of their hounds. The panoply of the chase is among the more glorious sights of the world, and in the pursuance of the various sports connected with hounds, large and small, a vast amount of money is spent, and a large number of persons employed, in the piping times of peace.
The beagle should be 15 inches or under, measured across the withers. If he is ever that height he becomes a harrier ”

“ Though perhaps it may be too much to say that hunting the hare on foot with a pack of 15-in. beagles is the most interesting method of pursuing the animal, still, if the evenness of the chances is to be the criterion of interest, certainly the contest between a good pack of beagles and a strong hare—the odds being slightly in favour of the latter—presents sport in its truest elements.
A good pack of these little hounds will no doubt on a good scenting day account for any hare, barring accidents ”

“ It is far better, I think, to breed hounds to hunt and not to win cups, and a bad motive to sacrifice hunting powers for looks, but it is possible to combine both, and it would be very pleasing for all Old Etonians interested in beagling, and a great credit to the Master of the E.C.H., if he were to produce beagles capable of winning at the annual Harrier and Beagle Show at Peterborough. ”

“ Get your pup some day while young, if possible, keep him by you, and when you see a sparrow or something alive, shoot it, pick it up and show him what you shot at; do this at home. Shoot all you please while he is young, so when you go hunting with him and shoot at game he won't be afraid and make a bee line for home.
Most dogs will soon take a liking to guns. Now to training a beagle dog to be a good one on rabbits, I warn you never to take another dog along, but for a common hound you may use your own way. ”

“ To a certain extent you must be guided by the sort of country over which you are to hunt, for if this be fairly open, without thick coverts, stout fences or wide drains, then you will find a small lightly-built hound, of some fourteen or fifteen inches, the best, but if on the other hand, you have much plough and strong fences, you will require a beagle of the heavier and larger type, standing about sixteen or seventeen inches. ”

“ Of course there are degrees of expenditure both in the management and hunting of beagles, to be determined by the means at your command, but a sportswoman can have a good and efficient pack of beagles in the field for very much less than she could have other hounds.
The first necessity, if you wish to hunt your own beagles, is to have a country to hunt over, and you must get leave to pursue your quarry over a farm or farms where there is a fair proportion of hares. The number of hares, indeed, need not be very great, as not very many will fall before beagles. ”

“ But [Pg 122] we live in fast times; we have not the leisure even to enjoy the time it takes for a pack of 10 or 11-inch beagles to trace and puzzle out the course of a hare with beautiful exactness till their perseverance is at length rewarded. ”

“ A dog after being taught to fetch and carry becomes as passionately fond of that exercise as any dog ever did of hunting, and yet nobody undertakes to say that providence made any dog on purpose to fetch and carry. A person, with whom the compiler was acquainted, had a young beagle, which he restrained from following the pack, in order to ascertain the truth of what he had frequently heard asserted, that that species had a natural propensity to pursue and kill hares. ”

“ Now we will suppose that the hounds are kept in their kennels always throughout the summer; then the new Master can be with his hounds all the summer and good blood can be got in the pack by sending bitches to well-known beagle packs, and in time a very good strain could be got. All the puppies would be sent out to walk till they are twelve months old and fit to join the pack. I don’t think there would be any difficulty in finding either boys or farmers to walk the puppies, and a small challenge cup could be given, as in other packs, for the hound best walked. ”

“ But let us describe a day’s sport with beagles, starting with the supposition that the master is sufficiently energetic to be up and at it by six o’clock on a beautiful October morning; for not only are hares scarce in the district over which he proposes to hunt, the consequence being that he will have a better chance of a find by getting on the trail, but he also desires to give his young entry the lesson for which running a hare’s trail up to her form is so admirably adapted. ”

“ In the large woods that traverse parts of Kent and Sussex, a kind of hunting-shooting is followed, that affords more fun, where there are plenty of rabbits and but few burrows, than might at first be imagined. The dogs employed are the smallest beagles that can be obtained. The little creatures stick to a hare, rabbit, or wounded pheasant with greater pertinacity than most spaniels, probably because they (the beagles) are slower, and hunt so low. Three or four couples make most animating music in the woodlands, and procure many shots, but they awfully disturb game. ”

“ When you have secured a country—or before, if you are so inclined—you will need to get together your pack. If a good pack of beagles should come into the market, you would do well to buy them, provided you do not mind the expense to start with. If, however, you do not object to trouble, and do mind the outlay, then, even before you think about country, you will buy some well-bred bitches and set to work to build up a pack. In any case, if you mean to have beagles, have them, and do not have dwarf harriers. The Beagle Stud-book will help you in your choice of strains. ”

“ It is, indeed, a very pretty sight to see a pack of beagles working in cover. How they try every tuft of grass or rushes! Soon you notice that they are working more eagerly, and some begin to lash their tails, and suddenly out bolts "bunny" from his seat, sure to be saluted by a hasty shot from some one, not the least to its detriment, but a very narrow escape for the leading dogs. Away go the pack, making the woods ring with their tongues. Excited individuals race after them, often with their guns on full cock, and their fingers on the trigger. ”