The Beagle 651 



playthings were the result of many years of breeding during which little 

 account was taken of them and no mention made of them. Finally the 

 queen took a fancy to them as an amusement and the name came into fre- 

 quent usage. We believe that both the dogs and the name given to them, 

 were very well known throughout England, and being little more than pets 

 they got a name that suited such a dog, either on account of its insignificance 

 in the matter of animals it was fit to chase, or on account of its size, or both, 

 for "beagle" covered both ideas. 



The old name for a small hound was kennet and that name appears in 

 very old English records of dogs pertaining to the royal kennels. The 

 beagles, if they then existed, were either considered to be kennets or were not 

 held to be dogs of the chase. The early name of the word in the "Squire of 

 Lowe Degre " shows only the fact of the word being in existence and not its 

 general usage in the strict sporting parlance of that time. The oft-quoted 

 translation from Oppian regarding the agasses, has no connection with the 

 beagle, for he was describing the rough Scottish terrier. This rendition of 

 the Gaelic word has also been confused with the agasseus, the gazehound, 

 which we hold was the coursing greyhound. The beagle is a good enough 

 little dog without introducing into the history of the breed a lot of far-fetched 

 nonsense based on the confusing of two somewhat similar names, one mean- 

 ing merely "dog" and the other referring to vision. 



Outside of England this little hunting dog had attained reputation 

 enough to attract the attention of the artist Strada, and one of his many illus- 

 trations of sporting is unique in representing what he styled in the Latin title 

 to the engraving "the swift little dogs of the English, which leaped upon the 

 horses." Here we have one of these little dogs being carried on the broad 

 buttocks of the palfrey ridden by a lady, and another is being assisted to a 

 similar position by her companion. The dog has reached up to his stirrup 

 and he is stooping to take hold of it. This is very good evidence of the 

 knowledge of them being spread beyond the limits of England before the 

 time of Queen Elizabeth, for Strada we place at about 1560, and Elizabeth 

 did not begin her reign until 1558. One hundred years later we have in a 

 painting by the Italian artist Castiglione, a little dog which cannot be any- 

 thing but one of these diminutive beagles for we have seen no Italian dog of 

 that character. If Castiglione visited England as some think in Charles II. 

 reign and if this painting of Orpheus was not done till that time it is within 

 the limits of conjecture that he represented a dog he had seen there. 



