CHAPTER LII 



The Beagle 



|HAT the terrier is to the Englishman the beagle may almost 

 be said to be to the American, as nearly as we have a useful 

 all-rounder in this country. There is too much genuine 

 good about the beagle to make him a whim of fancy and as 

 a show dog he has for long maintained a steady rating as one 

 of the reliable breeds for an average good entry. Certainly he is far more 

 popular here than in England and is kept within the limits of size of what a 

 beagle should be, In England the word beagle has become a very elastic 

 term and good-sized harriers are rated as beagles with some of the hare 

 hunting packs. With us a proper limit of size has long been recognised both 

 at shows and field trials, so that we have preserved at least that attribute of 

 the beagle better than the English have. 



The origin of the word beagle is said to be obscure, the standard work 

 on old English words, Murray's Dictionary, being copied in that remark by 

 all its successors. The earliest use of the word is quoted as being in "The 

 Squire of Lowe Degre," 1475, "With theyr beagles in that place and seven 

 score raches in his rechase." The word is later met with as begeles and in 

 the seventeenth century it became beagle. This variation of spelling means 

 little, for these old writers varied spelling two or three times on a page, and 

 sought for nothing but the sound of the word, or what would represent that. 

 The majority of opinions hitherto expressed is that beagle came from the 

 French word hegle^ but the boot is on the other leg and the best authorities 

 hold that the French borrowed their word from the English. Murray sug- 

 gests that it may have come from the French begeule, which meant a noisy, 

 shouting person, from "beer," to gape or open wide, and "quelle," throat — 

 the old French word was heeguelle. Murray then suggests that "open 

 throat in this sense might be applied to a dog," but admits that it was not 

 so applied in France. That is a very far-fetched suggestion, for of all the 

 hounds the beagle has the least voice or suggestion of the open throat. 



Murray is of the opinion that it cannot be Old English because of the 



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