BEAGLES AND BEAGLING 279 



man," makes some extremely sensible remarks on this 

 matter of nose and throat. " This rage for pace and 

 shape," he says, " in some measure accounts for the 

 great deficiency of nose, in comparison with what 

 it was formerly. It is true that hounds may be, and 

 are, nearer perfection in point of beauty. A throaty 

 hound, for instance, is rarely seen in a pack, although 

 very common some years back, when men thought 

 more of hunting than of riding ; but by getting rid 

 of the throat the nose had gone with it, for a throaty 

 hound has invariably a good nose ; and that all 

 hounds were so until the end of the last (eighteenth) 

 century, nearly all sporting pictures of hounds will 

 prove." In the case of beagles, therefore, and even 

 of harriers, a master should pause before he proceeds 

 to draft a hound because it is cursed (or blessed) with 

 throatiness. 



Beagles of the present day vary a great deal. We 

 have what is practically a dwarf foxhound, with short 

 legs, the rough-coated Welsh beagle, an excellent type, 

 the old-fashioned beagle, which is a miniature and 

 improved version of the Southern hound, the mixed 

 beagle, constituting a variety of blends of foxhound, 

 harrier, and the original breed, and the little sharp 

 rabbit beagle, used for hunting rabbits and not for 

 shooting purposes. This latter is the pocket beagle, 

 standing no more than ten inches at the shoulder. 

 The Marquis of Linlithgow has a kennel of these little 

 creatures, which display extraordinary fire, spirit, 

 and dash, and hunt rabbits in most amusing fashion. 



As to colour, the beagle, like other hounds, runs in 

 almost all hues, foxhound colour, blue-mottle, lemon 

 and white, hare-pie, badger-pie, black-and-tan, and 

 red. If I had the choosing or breeding of a pack, I 

 should prefer beagles of hound colour with a strong 



