84 Forty Years Beagling 



knows what a good dog is, to look up his record and 

 see about his handling as many beagles and other 

 dogs as any one in the State; and then he goes on 

 to tell us the beagles (?) he has owned and handled 

 are the 'short, bow-legged, long-bodied beagles/ 

 Shade of Sirius! What kind of a beagle is that? 

 Had the gentleman owned a French or German 

 name it might have been excusable, but for one with 

 a good Anglo-Saxon name to refer to a beagle as 

 'bow-legged and long-bodied,' it takes the fish 

 biscuit. I read the letter aloud to my neighbor last 

 evening, and as we went, lantern in hand, to close 

 the kennel gate between us and the pack, none of 

 which measure 28 inches, from tip of nose to root 

 of tail, I thought I heard him quote Shakespeare's 

 'Oberon' — 'Ho, ho, ho!' and say, 'Bow-legged, 

 long-bodied' beagle. Once in a while, unfortu- 

 nately, such a dog creeps mto the field trials; but 

 if our friend had followed the results of last year's 

 awards he would have found such a dog, although 

 winning a fii^st, was duly disqualified as not being 

 a typical beagle. That there are poor beagles and 

 useless beagles no one at all acquainted with the 

 breed will deny; that some are gunshy is well 

 known, the latter as 'Agamak' says, being among 

 the best of workers, yet it does not follow that such 

 a fault is transmitted to the progeny, neither does 



