25 February 2011

Beagling Meet

'Only the hunt staff wear uniform out beagling. The hounds are clustered round their huntsman. He talks to them in the mysterious language that huntsmen use, and occasionally one of them throws back his head and answers him in a light-voiced "yow--yow--yow" which clearly means "Let's get going: we're wasting time here: where's that hare?" Beagles are always more talkative than foxhounds; some might call it a fault (it should be checked) but it is part of the beagle's character, for all that.'

- Beagling, Anthony Clarkson, published in Young Sportsman 2: Tells You All About Beagling and Otterhunting, British Field Sports Society Pamphlet, 1950s

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