310 THE BOOK of THE DOG. 



" Previous to the present improved state of hunting and polish of field sports, packs of 

 Beagles were frequently seen in the possession of gentlemen whose age or infirmities pre- 

 vented their enjoyment of sport of a different description. But in proportion to the gradational 

 improvements made in the different kinds of hounds (according to the different chases which 

 they were intened to pursue) the former attachment to Beagles has been observed to decline. 



" They are the smallest of the hound race used in this country, are exquisite in their scent 

 of the hare, and indefatigably vigilant in their pursuit of her. This slow kind of hunting was 

 admirably adapted to age and the feminine gender. It could be enjoyed by ladies of the 

 greatest timidity, as well as gentlemen labouring under infirmity, to both of whom it was a 

 consolation that if they were occasionally a little way behind, there was barely a possibility of 

 their being thrown out. A pack of this description was perfectly accommodating to the neigh- 

 bouring rustics the major part of those not being possessed of horses found it a matter of 

 no great difficulty to be up well with them on foot. The spirit of emulation seemed formerly 

 to be who should produce the greatest degree of merit in the smallest compass, and packs 

 were to be seen in different parts of the most diminutive description. 



" Amongst professed amateurs every effort was made to attain perfection, and these 

 indefatigable endeavours were generally attended with success. Beagles were almost uniformly 

 so well matched that they did not exceed ten or eleven inches in height, and so carefully 

 selected in respect to speed that whenever they were running they might be covered with 

 a sheet and this alone is the predominant trait of celebrity in packs of Hounds or Beagles, 

 whether great or small. These, though slow, are incredibly destructive ; for if the scent lays 

 well, the hare has very little chance of escape, and this to the object of pursuit must 

 prove a lingering as well as a certain death ; for although in the early part of the chase 

 they can never get near enough to the hare to press her, yet they are in general fatal, 

 if even three or four hours in killing. 



"The numerous and diversified crosses in the different breeds of both Beagles and 

 Hounds, according to the views, wishes, and inclinations of those who keep them, have so 

 complicated and variegated that particular part of the species that a volume might be 

 produced in describing the various sorts and sizes as thought best adapted to the soil and 

 surface for which they are bred and intended to hunt, from the old, heavy, decp-tongued, 

 dew-lapped, Southern Hound of Lancashire (where the huntsman with his long pole follows 

 on foot) to the fleetest-bred Northern Harriers of the present day, who kill their game in a 

 burst of half an hour or forty minutes, with a degree of rapidity but little inferior to coursing. 



" Beagles, in the sporting acceptation of the term, are not to be considered synonymous 

 with Harriers, to whom, although they possess precisely the same properties, they are very 

 much inferior in size. That some adequate idea may be formed of the original Beagle, 

 the following ludicrous transaction is introduced from the most indisputable authority. 



"The late Colonel Hardy had once a collection of this diminutive tribe, amounting to ten 

 or twelve couples, which were always carried to and from the field of glory in a large pair of 

 panniers slung across a horse. Small as they were, and insignificant as they would now seem, 

 they could invariably keep a hare at all her shifts to escape them, and finally worry, or 

 rather tease her to death. The catastrophe attending this curious pack was of a very 

 singular description, for a small barn having been for some time appropriated to the purpose 

 of a kennel, was one night broke open, and every hound, as well as the panniers, stolen ; 

 nor could the most diligent search ever discover the least trace of the robbers or their sporting 

 appendage." 



