282 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



henge "), believed in it. " One reason," says " Stone- 

 henge," " why I have supposed him (the Welsh beagle) 

 to arise from the above cross (between the medium- 

 sized beagle and the rough terrier) is, that he has lost 

 in great measure the beagle tongue, and squeaks like 

 a terrier, though not quite so much as that dog." 

 Whether " Stonehenge " came across some special 

 breed of this kind, I know not ; but I am bound to 

 say that not all rough-coated Welsh beagles are pos- 

 sessed of the squeaky terrier voice above referred to. 

 The origin of this hound is, truly, lost in obscurity, 

 but I, for one, am inclined to think that in most Welsh 

 beagles of the rough-coated kind there can be very 

 little indeed of terrier blood. The question of the 

 ancestry of all our hounds is, however, a most difficult 

 one, and no living person can pretend to say, with 

 confidence, how exactly the different points and 

 qualities of our various modern hounds were produced. 

 The blending has been the gradual process of centuries. 

 " Stonehenge " himself maintained that the deerhound, 

 from which the Welsh harrier and beagle and the 

 otter-hound were supposed by some to obtain their 

 rough coats, was in itself the remote ancestor of the 

 wire-haired terrier. But discussion on this subject, 

 which, after all, must be almost purely hypothetical, 

 would be endless. 



The number of a pack of beagles is usually con- 

 siderably less than with harriers. Most establishments 

 range from ten to sixteen couples. Here and there 

 a few packs are to be found in stronger numbers, but 

 they are not many. The Hulton, which hunt near 

 Bolton, in Lancashire, muster seventeen and a half 

 couples ; Captain Croft's, hunting near Ware, consist 

 of eighteen couples ; the Seskinawaddy, a County 

 Tyrone pack, number twenty couples ; while the Innis 



