May, 1916 
39 
The Piedmont Pack, D. C. Sands, Jr„ Master, is fast making Virginia famous for beagling 
ALL HOUND AND A FOOT HIGH 
Beagles and Beagling, the Dogs and the Sport That 
Have Stood the Test of Three Hundred Years 
WILLIAMS HAYNES 
U NDER the patronage of royal¬ 
ty from Queen Elizabeth to 
the late King Edward, and, at the 
same time, the most popular all- 
’round sporting dog of the demo¬ 
cratic American farmer, the little 
beagle has won fairly his nickname 
of “everyman's hound.” In fact, 
among that branch of the old and 
aristocratic hound family whose 
members hunt by scent, lie is the 
only one which has attained wide¬ 
spread popularity. 
A Real Favorite 
The beagle is well known and 
liked, especially here in America 
where he plays admirably the dual 
role of house dog and sporting dog 
that has benefited by the shows. 
Since the Stone Age sportsmen have 
carefully bred and trained their 
hunting dogs, esteeming 
them highly, and the lit¬ 
tle hound needed no ad¬ 
vertising a m o n g the 
hunters. The bench 
shows, however, intro¬ 
duced him to quite an¬ 
other class of dog lovers 
among whom his affable 
disposition a n d charm¬ 
ing manners won him 
many new friends. 
As a general rule the 
hounds that hunt are 
cool toward people. The 
chase is the passion of 
their lives; they have no 
time for human friend¬ 
ships. The beagle is the 
exception, a keen sports¬ 
man but jolly and socia¬ 
ble withal. He likes to 
meet new acquaintances 
and hobnob with his old 
friends, and for over 300 
years the adjective “merry” has al¬ 
ways been linked with his name. 
The maximum of 15" high at the 
shoulder set for the beagle keeps 
him well within the limit of house¬ 
dog size. He is neat and clean and 
does not bark without cause. He 
has little of the terrier’s nervous, 
roving spirit or his animosity to¬ 
ward cats and poultry. He is kind 
as an old nurse with the children, 
and serves faithfully and capably 
as a guardian and night watchman. 
Two things, the instinct to run 
rabbits and the passion to bay the 
moon o’ nights, are ingrained deep 
in his hound nature. In a few 
cases the former might be a disad¬ 
vantage, but there is no doubt that 
always and under every circum¬ 
stance the latter is sure to be. For¬ 
tunately, there is a sure cure for 
the nightly racket, a 
cure, by the way, that is 
effective for most dogs. 
It is to shut the howler 
up in a small box or 
kennel, and, in order 
that the night noises may 
not disturb him, throw a 
couple of thicknesses of 
burlap sacking over the 
sleeping quarters. It 
may be even more effec¬ 
tive to keep the sleeping 
box indoors. A closely 
confined dog will seldom 
bark. 
The Beagle as a 
Sportsman 
On top of all the ad¬ 
vantage of his sociable 
disposition, the beagle’s 
popularity has been 
helped by his sporting 
(Continued on page 76) 
A close view of tivo of the Piedmont beagles, 
showing their points—solid and big for their 
inches, well able to stand the racket 
The Somerset pack, with the Peters. Betray and Wheatley, has revived 
beagling down on Long Island. The larger hounds are followed with 
horses, while the foot pack is composed of smaller, slower dogs 
