Beagling in Great Britain

Beagling (British style) 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 hound). 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, willful 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 AND 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 dog hounds or just dogs and females are bitches. A dog hound 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 kenneled separately - there is no general agreement about which practice is best. There are a couple of packs which are all bitches - dog hound pups are given ('drafted') to other packs, and can be used for breeding when needed. There is at least one pack which is all dog hounds, 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 Min of Ag regulations, running incinerators, and driving round the countryside burning diesel at nearly £4 a gallon, 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. I had two dog hounds, litter brothers, who hunted twelve full seasons, and were worth their weight in gold. The anti hunting people often claim that hounds are put down at 5-6 years old purely to make way for younger hounds, but nothing could be further from the truth. On a cold wet day, when there is virtually no scent and all your young hounds are standing around you looking for instructions, it is the old experienced hounds which will find the hare for you.
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. And having done exactly this myself, I am not convinced that old Beagles cope well with such a drastic change in their environment at an advanced age.
Having brought these hounds into the world, we have a responsibility to care for them and do what is best for them. I find it very distressing to have old hounds put down, especially when I have known them since the very moment they were born, but I am convinced that, except in a very few cases, the hounds' interests would not be served better in any other way. If I were to keep old hounds, it would be to spare my own feelings, at the expense of the hounds' welfare.