nn 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



HE reader of the following pages will find 

 I that I can lay no claim to the authorship 



-■^ of much of the material in them. In fact, 

 my chief aim in writing the book has been to pre- 

 sent to the beaghng world a quantity of valuable 

 and interesting material taken from the sporting 

 papers of former days, now long out of print and 

 which a few years more would have made entirely 

 inaccessible. Here will be found presented the 

 ideas of those who have gone before and who made 

 beagling history in the United States, and a record 

 of what changes were discussed, considered neces- 

 sary or made for the benefit of the breed since 

 General Rowett first imported his beagles from 

 England. Moreover, I think I am justified in 

 claiming that these opinions of the prominent 

 beaglers and breeders are now brought together 

 for the first time. 



My duty is then principally that of a chronicler 

 — not to argue why certain men believed certain 

 things, nor why events did or did not happen, or 

 should or should not have happened, but simply 

 to describe what the records are on the different 

 matters concerning the beagle from 1884 to date. 



vii 



