COLONEL THORNTON THE PRINCE'S BEAGLES. 77 



use of the Beagle is as a cross to reduce the size, and add to the speed, of hounds 

 which are too large and too slow ; and should music be the object, that forms 

 another item of his utility. 



Beagles have been, we believe, immemorially hunted in Surrey and Sussex, and 

 several Packs kept in those Counties of late years. In Colonel Thornton's en- 

 tertaining- Tour through France, we find the following account of the Prince 

 Regent's Pack of Beagles, in which some practical observations are interspersed of 

 real truth and consequence 



" You are perfectly acquainted with my partiality for every thing referring 

 to the chace, and that predilection naturally led me to inspect the Prince of 

 Wales's Dog Kennels, but more particularly his dwarf-beagles, which were origi- 

 nally of the same breed as my own. 



" Here I must observe, that the beagle, in point of height, should be regulated 

 by the Country he is to hunt in ; but he ought, at any rate, to be very slow. In 

 a dry country, free from walls, the beagle cannot be too slow ; but where there are 

 such impediments, he should be larger, to prevent being stopped by fences; as 

 also when the waters are out, he is the better calculated for swimming. In the 

 Country where my Pack hunt, the turf is like velvet, a circumstance much in their 

 favour. The Prince's beagles are of a much larger growth than mine, and mixed ; 

 but it is a rule with me in the breed of all animals, to get the most stuff in the least 

 room. Another circumstance tending to strengthen my opinion is, that the lower 

 they are, their noses must be closer, and their scent necessarily stronger : but in 

 point of speed they all go too fast. I have seen several valuable horses distressed, 

 and some very high bred ones killed, in following these insignificant looking 

 animals. Many gentlemen, unaccquainted with the powers of the beagle, have 

 imagined they could overtake them on a poney ; but the speed of these hounds is 

 regulated by the head they carry when they sheet well. Horses are much more 

 distressed in an open, hilly country, where nothing intervenes to impede the hounds, 

 than they are in an enclosed one, as every fence, more or less, impedes the velocity 

 of the hound. Fox-hounds indeed fly the fences, but then the game turning up 

 one fence and down another, obliges the hounds to cast back ; and the frequency 

 of these casts affords a decided advantage in favour of the game, as well as ease to 

 the horses; but when a burst is made, and there is no impediment on the plain, 

 game, hounds and horses are done up together." 



In accord with the above observations, in respect to horses, we have already re- 

 marked, how much less blood in a hunter will suffice, in a heavy enclosed country, 

 where are so many pulls. These hunting remarks moreover, are in strict analogy 

 with our experience of the dead flat, and the hilly course, upon the Turf; all speedy 

 and jadish horses performing best upon the latter, more especially if they chance to 



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