BEAGLE, a small well-proportioned hound, slow but sure, having au excellent nose and most enduring diligence, formerly much in fashion for hunting the hare, but now comparatively neglected, its place being occupied, where hare-hunting is patronised, by the Harrier. [HARRIER.] These were the little hounds so much prized by the good old English gentleman;' for at a trifling expense, and greatly to the delight of the neighbouring rustics who followed on foot, he could keep his ten or eleven couple, not more than so many inches high individually, and, mounted on his easy pad, would generally make certain of killing his hare, though it frequently cost him two or three hours to perform the feat. During this protracted chase he had ample leisure for enjoying the sight of his admirably-matched pack running so well together that 'they might have been covered with a sheet,' and for gratifying his ears with their tuneable cry.
The hare distanced them immeasurably at first, and in the course of the run she might be observed to sit and listen 'sad on some little eminence,' but "In loader peals, the loaded winds Broagbt on the gathering storm " and after exhausting all her speed. shifts, and doublings, she almost always fell a victim to their persevering and destructive instinct.
A well-bred beagle of the proper size, which should not exceed that above mentioned, is a very pretty and symmetrical variety. This symmetry (the term is used in relation to the purposes for which the (log is employed) was the result of much care among amateurs, who spared no efforts to bring it to what they considered the standard of perfection.
Some prided themselves on the diminutive but still effective size of their packs. Daniel and others have not forgotten to commemorate Colonel Hardy's cry of beagles.' They amounted to ten or eleven couple, and were always carried to and from the field in a pair of panniers upon a horse's back. Small as they were they rarely failed, though they could never get near enough to press the hare in the early part of the run, to stick to her and worry her to death at last.
Such diminutive hounds are sometimes called Lap-Dog Beagles and Rabbit Beagles.
The fairy pack above alluded to had a little barn for their kennel, where also their panniers were kept. The door was one night broken open, and every hound, panniers and all, stolen ; nor could the dis consolate owner ever discover either the thieves or their booty,