20 
Beagles and Beagling 
barring - size, to pass muster and satisfy their owners. 
The result of this slip shod, ignorant method was 
that the country was filled with mongrel nonde¬ 
scripts posing as beagles; witness our earlier bench 
shows. It was to strike at the root of this evil 
and rescue the breed from utter extinction that I 
decided to draw the line, rigidly fixed in the 
standard, knowing that the little thoroughbred 
could not be bred from the big mongrel, and that 
those who wanted the true beagle would hark back 
to the pure source to get him. 
“I will not go into an extended argument. The 
subject has been ably and thoroughly handled by 
Messrs. Chapman, Ashburner and “Bradley,* and 
others, and left little to say. The claims of the advo¬ 
cates of the larger dog—that he is more enduring— 
should, however, be answered. 
“I grant that if a mixed pack, i. e., one say of 
16-inch and 12- or 13-inch dogs are run together, 
the small dogs will be at a disadvantage, for the 
reason that the larger dogs, from their greater speed 
and stride keep the little ones on the keen jump to 
stay with them. This being above their rating gait, 
of course exhausts and tires them in a protracted 
hunt. The remedy is simply to assort the pack to 
as nearly one size as possible and weed out the over¬ 
grown dogs. Thus selected, the small dogs will be 
found to afford the best sport and prove the most 
killing pack, giving many more chances to the gun, 
as the rabbit stays longer above ground than if 
rushed at foxhound speed by beagles of nearly fox- 
bound size.'* 
There seemed to be considerable controversy on 
