42 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



on the moorlands for grouse-shooting. It is by some preferred to tlio pointer, without sufficient 

 ivasotf ; this dog is more liable to become foot-sore than the setter. 



THE BEAGLE. 



THIS dog was formerly a great favourite, though it is now but little used. It is of small stature, but of 

 exquisite scent, and its tones, when heard in full cry, are musical. It has not, however, the strength or 

 fleetiiess of the harrier, and still less so of the foxhound; and hence it does not engage the attention ol' 

 sportsmen of the modern school, who, unlike Sir Roger de Coverley, are impetuous in the field, pre- 

 ferring a hard run to a tame and quiet pursuit. The beagle was employed only in hunting the hare, as 

 we employ the harrier, but the foxhound is trained for the deer as well as the fox. If the beagle is slow, it 

 compensates for it by the most enduring diligence, seldom failing to run down the hare, in spite of her 

 speed, shifts, and doublings. The beagle is about ten or eleven inches in height at the shoulder ; but 

 formerly sportsmen prided themselves on possessing packs of very efficient dogs of still less stature. 

 Colonel Hardy had a celebrated " cry of beagles," amounting to ten or eleven couples, which were 

 always carried to and from the field in a pair of^panniers, on a horse's back. They were well matched, 



THE HAUK1EK. 



and ran together in such close order that they might have been covered with a sheet. This beautiful 

 pack of diminutive hounds was kept in a barn, and one night the door was broken open, and every 

 hound was stolen, panniers and all ; nor could Colonel Hardy ever discover the thief or his booty. 



THE HARRIER. 



THIS dog is larger than the beagle, but inferior to the foxhound. Mr. Beekford, no ordinary authority 

 in such matters, thus wrote : " The hounds I think most likely to show you sport are between the 

 large slow-hunting harrier, and the little fox-beagle. The former are too dull, too heavy, and too 

 slow ; the latter too lively, too light, and too fleet. The first, it is true, have excellent noses, and I 

 make no doubt will kill their game at last, if the day be long enough ; but you know that the days are 

 short in winter, and it is bad hunting in the dark. The others, on the contrary, fling, dash, and are 

 all alive ; but the cold blast aft'ects them, and, if your country be deep and wet, it is not impossible I hat 

 some of them may be drowned. 



" .My hounds were across of both these kinds, in which it was mv endeavour to get as much bone 



