“Hark! from yon covert, where those towering oaks Above the humble copse aspiring rise, What glorious triumphs burst in every gale Upon our ravish’d ears! The hunters shout, The clanging horns swell their sweet winding notes, The pack wide opening load the trembling air With various melody; from tree to tree The propagated cry redoubling bounds, And winged zephyrs waft the floating joy Through all the regions near. The puzzling pack unravel, wile by wile, Maze within maze.” Much emulation prevailed in former times among sportsmen in the breeding of beagles, and it was then the greatest merit to rear dogs of the smallest growth. Amongst amateurs of hunting, beagles were so carefully selected in point of size, that they seldom exceeded ten or eleven inches in height; and they were so well matched with respect to speed, that during the chase a good pack might be covered with a sheet. This is with all kinds of hounds a sure mark of excellence. Although beagles are slow in speed, they are uncommonly eager; for, if the scent lies well, a hare has little chance of escape from them. Their slowness, however, is the principal reason of their being almost totally discontinued in packs, and that they are now seldom to be met with beyond a few couples, used in some of the southern counties of England to ensure finding more certainly in greyhound coursing. Hunting with the beagle was admirably adapted for ladies and gentlemen up in years; and, besides, afforded much amusement to rustics, and other pedestrian hunters; for there were few male persons of any activity who could not keep up with them. The late Colonel Hardy once had a pack of beagles amounting to ten or twelve couples, and so diminutive in size, that they were always carried to and from the sporting field in a large pair of panniers slung across a horse. This curious pack was lost to the colonel in a rather singular manner. It was kept in a barn which was one night broken open, when all the hounds and the panniers were stolen; and, notwithstanding the most diligent search, no trace of either could ever be discovered.—_Brown._ BEAK, _s._ The bill or horny mouth of a bird. BEAN, _s._ The common garden bean; the horse bean.