654 The Dog Book 



In addition to the Rowett beagles in Illinois there was a strain kept by 

 Captain Assheton in Virginia, imported from the kennels of Sir William 

 Ashburnham. These were a rangier type than the Rowetts and quite a 

 number of them were pied and mottled. One well known beagle of this 

 strain was Blue Cap and the name of "bluecaps" was not infrequently 

 given to dogs tracing to the Assheton dogs. These kennels had little to do 

 with the breeding of the large number of dogs called beagles, for these varied 

 greatly in size, some being little toys while others ran to the height of 16 

 inches. Mrs. White of Cleveland showed the toy kind very successfully 

 while Dan O'Shea was always to be depended upon to bring some good ones 

 of the hound type from London, Ont. 



About the first dog to make his mark outside of O'Shea's Rattler was 

 imported Bannerman; which came from the pack of small beagles bred by 

 Mr. J. Crane who hunted foot beagles as near to nine inches as he could 

 breed them. Bannerman was, however, a good sized dog and his success on 

 the bench made him very popular as a sire, so that he had much influence on 

 the breed in the way of shorter backs, but he also did away in a great meas- 

 ure with markings, many of his get being nearly all white. Another prom- 

 inent dog which followed him was Frank Forrest, bred by Mr. George F. 

 Reed, of Barton, Vt., but brought out by Mr. Arthur Parry, of Linden, Mass. 

 The great success of this dog had more to do than anything we know of in 

 making Massachusetts a beagle state and improving the breed throughout 

 New England. 



In the early nineties beagles were bred in great numbers, but they were 

 not of the kind we are now accustomed to see; lacking the miniature hound 

 type of head and body, with the good legs and feet we associate with the 

 hound. To no one more than the late Mr. James L. Kernochan is due the 

 change which set in about ten years ago. Mr. Kernochan rode with the 

 hounds and wanted beagles that looked like hounds. To get what he wanted 

 he imported several very good dogs and their success set the fashion in his 

 direction. His Hempstead beagles on more than one occasion proved al- 

 most invincible at New York and from that time we have seen no change and 

 only improvement in the type of American beagle. 



Not only are beagles of this stamp good to look at, but they are success- 

 ful in the field at the many field trials held annually throughout the country, 

 a state of affairs we do not find in the field trials for setters and pointers, the 

 winners at these being in very few instances capable of taking honours at 



