Beagling
Beagling
is the hunting of the hare on foot with a pack of
hounds. It has some similarities to foxhunting, in
that the hounds hunt primarily by scent rather than
sight, but there are no horses involved. It should
also be distinguished from hare coursing, where the
hounds hunt entirely by sight.
The sport of Beagling as we know it first developed
around 1400AD. Beagles first appeared around the time
of the Norman Conquest, but were initially used for
finding hares which were then coursed with greyhounds.
From the fifteenth century, the idea of using beagles
in packs to hunt hares rapidly grew in popularity.
Queen Elizabeth I was an enthusiastic follower, and
as deer became scarce following the Enclosure Acts
of the seventeenth century, the sportsmen of the era
increasingly turned to hunting the hare instead.
The beagles of that era did not have the uniform appearance
seen today. They were descended from crosses of various
assorted breeds, both Anglo-Saxon and Norman, with
an infusion of greyhound blood for speed and better
conformation. The word 'beagle' is generally believed
to have been derived from the Celtic word "beag",
meaning small, so if you had a pack of small hounds,
then they were beagles regardless of their exact breeding.
From around 1750, there was a sudden and rapid explosion
in the popularity of foxhunting, which provided the
young gentlemen of the Regency era with a new sport
whose excitement, glamour and element of risk made
the poor old beagle look rather sedate. Beagling became
increasingly the pursuit of ladies and elderly gentlemen,
and by around 1840 it was in danger of disappearing
altogether.
However, a few enthusiasts remained who were determined
not to let the sport vanish, and they set themselves
the task of breeding a better type of beagle to hunt
in a manner that would appeal to more people. In 1875
there were only about ten packs of beagles in the
country; by 1903 there were fifty-five, and the number
continued to increase until today there are eighty-five
packs covering virtually every part of Great Britain
where hares can be found.
The
Hound
The modern beagle typically stands between fourteen
and sixteen inches at the shoulder, and has a lithe,
athletic build. Up until the Second World War there
was a great deal of overlap between the hunting and
show types, but since then the two have diverged until
today they are quite different in appearance . Before
1891 no formal breeding records were kept, but in
that year the Association of Masters of Harriers and
Beagles (AMHB) was formed, and a Kennel Stud Book
was compiled listing the breeding of all beagles belonging
to packs which had joined the AMHB. This record has
been maintained every year since, so it is possible
to take almost any beagle hunting today and trace
its pedigree in an unbroken line through maybe twenty
generations, back to the Victorian era.
The availability of this record has undoubtedly helped
to improve the quality of the breed, by allowing scientific
breeding methods to be used. Up to the Second World
War, hunting beagles could be bought and sold (there
were regular auctions around the country), and stud
fees charged. However, most beagles were put down
at the outbreak of war, and to re-establish the breed
after 1945 the AMHB decided to prohibit the sale of
registered hounds, or the charging of stud fees. This
had the effect that anyone building up a pack of beagles
could have access to the best breeding stock, and
that packs which had bred more hounds than they needed
would offer puppies free of charge to those that needed
them. Thus Beagling rapidly re-established itself
after the war, and the quality of hounds improved
as well. These rules remain in force today.
As well as beagles, two other breeds of hound are
also used to hunt the hare - the harrier (a giant
beagle, hunted on horseback, which can be used to
hunt hare and/or fox), and the basset hound (a long
wheelbase beagle, somewhat different from the show
type). Harriers, due to their much greater speed,
can only really be safely hunted on horseback in most
places, and basset hounds tend to be obstinate, wilful
and difficult
to handle, although they inspire great loyalty among
their followers.
So the beagle is by far the most popular hound for
hunting the hare, and likely to remain so.
The
Pack Kennels
Typically
there will be around 25-30 couple of hounds in kennels,
for a pack hunting two days a week. (Hounds are traditionally
counted in couples, as when you are trying to see
if you still have them all together during a hunting
day, it is quicker to count them two at a time. Three
at a time would be quicker still, but you lose count.)
In hunting parlance, males are doghounds or just dogs
and females are bitches. A doghound used for breeding
is a stallion hound; a bitch used for breeding is
a brood bitch.
Most hunts use a mixed pack, that is dogs and bitches
hunting together, and therefore the dogs and bitches
will live and sleep together, apart from bitches in
season ('hot bitches') who are kept in a separate
lodge out of sight (and preferably scent) of the others.
In some kennels dogs and bitches are kennelled separately
- there is no general agreement about which practice
is best. There are a couple of packs which are all
bitches - doghound pups are given ('drafted') to other
packs, and can be used for breeding when needed. There
is at least one pack which is all doghounds, made
up entirely of drafts from other packs.
Some packs feed their hounds on fallen stock. Basically,
if a farmer has a sheep or cow which dies, or needs
to be put down, he can either call out a knackering
firm and pay £50-£100, or the local hunt
who will pick up the animal either free or for a small
charge. The animals are skinned and butchered at the
kennels under strict Ministry of Agriculture rules
(there are regular inspections) and if the meat is
found to be fit for canine consumption, it is fed
to hounds. Sometimes it is fed raw, other times it
is boiled and fed with porridge or flake maize, which
looks like cornflakes. This is particularly good for
hounds at the end of a hunting day, as it is very
warming and quicker and easier to eat.
However, due to the increasing cost of complying with
Government regulations, running incinerators, and
driving round the countryside burning fuel at £1.00
a litre, an increasing number of hunts are now switching
to other food sources, usually dried complete dog
food which can be
bought in bulk. This is much easier to store, infinitely
less time consuming to prepare, but because the hounds
eat it so quickly it is difficult to ensure that each
hound gets exactly the amount it needs. All the hounds
are fed together; some eat more quickly than others,
and some require a lot of food to maintain their weight,
while others seem to grow fat just on the smell of
food. When feeding fallen stock, it is easy to let
in the shy feeders and thinner hounds first, then
the rest a few at a time, finishing with the porkers.
With dried food the whole lot is gone in about 30
seconds, so regulating the food intake of individual
hounds is more difficult.
Hounds are usually exercised every day (except hunting
days). In spring and early summer this is just a leisurely
walk, but as the hunting season approaches, the exercise
is stepped up to make the hounds fit. It would be
unkind to take unfit hounds hunting. Some hunts will
exercise on bicycles, which the beagles seem to enjoy
- but then beagles enjoy everything. Once hunting
starts, less exercise is needed as the hounds get
plenty of it on hunting days, so it is mainly a case
of walking out the beagles and looking for signs of
lameness (usually caused by hounds picking up thorns
in their pads, or cutting them on sharp stones, while
hunting).
Typically a beagle will be introduced to hunting at
the age of around 18 months, and hunt for about eight
seasons after that, although some last much longer.
However, it cannot be denied that hunting hounds are
seldom kept to die of old age. This is not because
we do not care for them, quite the reverse. These
hounds have grown up and lived virtually all their
lives in a pack environment, with a fixed daily routine
and the company of others. They love hunting, and
a hound left behind in kennels on a hunting day will
often howl with frustration. So imagine an old hound
which is left behind every single hunting day. An
old hound which no longer has the strength to keep
up with the pack is liable to become lost, and possibly
end up wandering around in the dark until he is run
over by a car. The hounds are not housetrained; they
are unused to a domestic life, and there are few people
who have the facilities to take on an ageing ex-hunting
beagle.
Having brought these hounds into the world, we have
a responsibility to care for them and do what is best
for them. It is distressing to have old hounds put
down, especially when they have been known since the
very moment they were born. However, except in a very
few cases, the hounds' interests would not be served
better in any other way.
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