BEAGLES AND BEAGLING 281 



to spread rapidly. By the year 1886-87 there were 

 some eighteen packs estabhshed, and by 1895 there 

 were no less than forty-four packs of beagles hunting 

 in the United Kingdom. During this last season 

 there have been somewhere about fifty packs, a goodly 

 muster, indeed.* 



I have said that hunting with foot-harriers is one 

 of the finest of English winter sports. Beagling 

 follows very closely upon its heels. In some ways, 

 possibly, it is even preferable, because, with foot- 

 harriers, a man must be an exceedingly good pedes- 

 trian and in the very best of trim to keep within hail 

 of a pack of hounds standing eighteen or nineteen 

 inches in height and blessed with plenty of pace as 

 well as wonderful noses. For this reason, probably, 

 it is that packs of foot-beagles so largely outnumber 

 packs of foot-harriers, which last do not, I think, 

 throughout the United Kingdom, number more than 

 about a dozen, all told. Fourteen- or fifteen-inch 

 beagles go quite fast enough for most people ; they 

 show first-rate sport ; and they cost less to maintain 

 than harriers. 



England supports by far the great majority of beagle- 

 packs now in existence. Out of forty-nine or fifty 

 that took the field in the United Kingdom during this 

 last winter, Ireland is to be credited with seven, Wales 

 with three, Scotland with but one. The rest are all 

 hunted in England proper. While speaking of Wales, 

 it is contended by some authorities that the rough- 

 haired Welsh beagle obtains his thick wiry coat from 

 an admixture of rough-coated terrier blood. That 

 seems rather a strong assumption, yet many good 

 judges, including the late Mr. J. H. Walsh (" Stone- 



* In Appendix " D " will be found a list of beagle packs 

 for 1902-03. 



