# Beagling
**Beagling** is the hunting of hares on foot with a pack of beagle hounds, small scent hounds bred for the purpose. The term is chiefly British, and the sport is defined by the absence of horses: followers keep pace with the hounds on foot, which makes it accessible to anyone able to walk the hunting country.[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beagling) • [2](https://www.oldberkeleybeagles.co.uk/whatisbeagling)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Definition | Hunting hares on foot with beagle hounds, specially bred for the purpose[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beagling) |
| Word origin | First recorded 1815–25, from *beagle* + *-ing*[3](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/beagling) |
| Hound size | Packs use beagles around 16 inches in height[2](https://www.oldberkeleybeagles.co.uk/whatisbeagling) |
| Historical low point | By 1875 only about ten packs of Beagles remained in the UK[4](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection) |
| Registered packs | 44 packs by 1902, 55 by 1903, and 59 Beagle packs plus 19 Harrier packs in 2017[5](https://riahorter.com/index_htm_files/e%20Beagling.pdf) |
| Legal status in Britain | The Hunting Act 2004 makes hunting a wild mammal with dogs an offense except under the Act's exemptions[6](https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-06-03/56855/) |
| Dress | Hunt staff of a beagle pack traditionally wear green coats and conspicuous white britches[7](https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/hare-hunting-season-begins/) |
## How the sport is conducted
A beagle pack consists of small hounds, around 16 inches in height, known collectively as the 'pack'. The hounds are taken out from a 'meet' to hunt in the surrounding 'country', and each pack occupies a distinct hunt country of its own.[2](https://www.oldberkeleybeagles.co.uk/whatisbeagling) Beagles hunt by scent and are slow enough to be followed on foot, which is the practical basis of the sport; in the past, any pack of small-sized hounds was called a Beagle regardless of its breeding.[4](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection) The quarry was traditionally the hare, and the sport is described as being about watching the hounds follow a scent trail in the company of friends.[2](https://www.oldberkeleybeagles.co.uk/whatisbeagling) • [8](https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/consultation-analysis/2016/10/review-protection-wild-mammals-scotland-act-2002-written-submissions/documents/00508058-pdf/00508058-pdf/govscot%3Adocument/00508058.pdf)
**Dress and staff.** The hunt staff of a beagle pack traditionally wear green coats and conspicuous white britches.[7](https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/hare-hunting-season-begins/)
## History
Beagling was practiced in the classical world and held its popularity in England until it was gradually replaced in the 18th century by fox-hunting. A mounted version, practiced by harriers, was common in the 19th century but has since declined.[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beagling) Beagle-type dogs appear in documents dating from 400 BC Greece and AD 200 Britain, and both Beagles and Basset Hounds trace their ancestry in Britain back to the [Norman Conquest](https://www.edgepedia.org/norman-conquest) in 1066.[9](https://www.beagleclubqld.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Beagles-Booklet.pdf) • [4](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection)
The name 'Beagle' appears in the sixteenth century in the household books of King Henry VIII, and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I was said to be an enthusiastic follower. Royal support continued into the 19th century: [Queen Victoria](https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-victoria) kept a pack of Beagles and Prince Albert a pack of Harriers.[4](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection) The word itself was first recorded in English in 1815–25 as *beagle* plus the suffix *-ing*; the breed name may derive from the Gaelic *beag*, meaning 'small', or from the [Old French](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-french) *begueule*, 'open throat', a reference to the hound's loud baying.[3](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/beagling) • [4](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection) • [10](https://oneworddaily.com/word/beagling)
**Decline and revival.** The rise of hunting on horseback with Foxhounds reduced the sport severely: by 1875 there were only about ten packs of Beagles left in the UK. Enthusiasts kept the tradition alive by breeding a Beagle with broader appeal, a type recognized by the Kennel Club in 1890.[4](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection) Numbers then recovered: 44 packs by 1902, 55 in 1903, and 59 Beagle packs and 19 Harrier packs registered with the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles in 2017.[5](https://riahorter.com/index_htm_files/e%20Beagling.pdf) Some packs, such as the Royal Rock Beagles dating from 1845, have long continuous histories.[5](https://riahorter.com/index_htm_files/e%20Beagling.pdf)
## Packs, schools, and the military
Many of the remaining packs of beagles have been owned by military establishments or by public schools.[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beagling) School packs include the Eton College Beagles, a pack that had been in existence for 64 years by the time its history was written and that gave many amateur huntsmen their first experience of hound lore.[11](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/74445/pg74445-images.html) In Cambridge, two packs established beagling firmly in the university, among them the Trinity Foot Beagles.[12](https://magdalene.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/trinity-foot-beagles%3Bisad?sf_culture=fr) A 1995 parliamentary research paper counted around 100 beagle packs, 10 basset packs, and 40 harrier packs in Britain, with packs of about thirty beagles followed on foot.[13](https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP95-26/RP95-26.pdf)
## Legal position since the Hunting Act 2004
The Hunting Act 2004 makes it an offense to hunt a wild mammal with dogs, except where the hunting is carried out in accordance with the Act's exemptions, and it completely bans hare coursing.[6](https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-06-03/56855/) Since the Act, beagle packs in Britain hunt a 'trail', an artificial scent, rather than live quarry, although hunting rabbits remains legal.[2](https://www.oldberkeleybeagles.co.uk/whatisbeagling) Enforcement remains active: in 2026 the kennel huntsman of the Stowe Beagles pleaded guilty at Northampton Magistrates' Court to hunting a wild mammal with dogs, after drone footage showed the pack chasing and killing a hare, and was fined £258 with £585 costs and a £103 surcharge; the offense carries a maximum fine of £5,000.[14](https://www.northants.police.uk/news/northants/news/in-court/2026/june/kennel-huntsman-pleads-guilty-to-hunting-a-wild-mammal-with-dogs/) In 2016, [Eton College](https://www.edgepedia.org/eton-college) investigated a claim that its beagling club had taken part in an illegal hare hunt in [North Yorkshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/north-yorkshire).[15](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/eton-college-launches-investigation-into-claim-its-beagling-club-took-part-in-illegal-hare-hunt-a6834406.html)
**Hare conservation context.** The brown hare population of Britain was estimated at between 680,000 and 954,000 in a government-funded national survey of the winters of 1991–92 and 1992–93, and a 2000 Committee of Inquiry commissioned related research on the impact of beagling on hare populations.[13](https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP95-26/RP95-26.pdf) • [16](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ce456e5274a2c9a484c13/4763.pdf) In England, brown hare numbers are now estimated at less than half a million.[17](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-legislation-to-crack-down-on-illegal-hare-coursing-now-in-force)
## Beagling and related activities
Beagling is distinct from fox-hunting, which is conducted on horseback with larger Foxhounds, and from hare coursing, in which dogs compete against each other in pursuit of a hare; the latter is completely banned under the Hunting Act 2004.[6](https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-06-03/56855/) Harrier packs hunted the same quarry but were followed on horseback, a form common in the 19th century that has since declined.[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beagling) After the 2004 Act, trail hunting, in which hounds follow a pre-laid animal-based scent mimicking traditional hunting, became popular in the UK as an alternative to traditional fox hunting; the government announced in March 2026 that trail hunting is set to be banned in [England and Wales](https://www.edgepedia.org/england-and-wales).[18](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/trail-hunting-set-to-be-banned) Beagle and [Basset Hound](https://www.edgepedia.org/basset-hound) packs still exist today, but now follow artificial scent trails instead of pursuing wildlife.[4](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection)
## References
1. [beagling, The Oxford Companion to British History (J. A. Cannon), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beagling)
2. [What is beagling?, Old Berkeley Beagles](https://www.oldberkeleybeagles.co.uk/whatisbeagling)
3. [BEAGLING Definition & Meaning, Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/beagling)
4. [Follow Your Nose: A History of Beagling, British Sporting Art Trust / National Horseracing Museum](https://bsat.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/follow-your-nose-beagle-pictures-from-bsat-collection)
5. [Beagling (e-book extract), Royal Agricultural University / riahorter.com](https://riahorter.com/index_htm_files/e%20Beagling.pdf)
6. [Written Question 56855, UK Parliament, answered 10 June 2025](https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-06-03/56855/)
7. [Hare Hunting Season Begins, Hunt Saboteurs Association](https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/hare-hunting-season-begins/)
8. [Review of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002: written submissions, Scottish Government](https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/consultation-analysis/2016/10/review-protection-wild-mammals-scotland-act-2002-written-submissions/documents/00508058-pdf/00508058-pdf/govscot%3Adocument/00508058.pdf)
9. [Beagles booklet, Beagle Club of Queensland](https://www.beagleclubqld.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Beagles-Booklet.pdf)
10. [Beagling — Definition & Meaning, One Word Daily](https://oneworddaily.com/word/beagling)
11. [The Eton College Hunt, Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/74445/pg74445-images.html)
12. [Trinity Foot Beagles, Magdalene College Archives](https://magdalene.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/trinity-foot-beagles%3Bisad?sf_culture=fr)
13. [Hunting Bill 1994/95 Research Paper RP95-26, House of Commons Library](https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP95-26/RP95-26.pdf)
14. [Kennel huntsman pleads guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs, Northamptonshire Police](https://www.northants.police.uk/news/northants/news/in-court/2026/june/kennel-huntsman-pleads-guilty-to-hunting-a-wild-mammal-with-dogs/)
15. [Eton College launches investigation into claim its beagling club took part in illegal hare hunt, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/eton-college-launches-investigation-into-claim-its-beagling-club-took-part-in-illegal-hare-hunt-a6834406.html)
16. [Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs in England & Wales (2000)](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ce456e5274a2c9a484c13/4763.pdf)
17. [New legislation to crack down on illegal hare coursing now in force, GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-legislation-to-crack-down-on-illegal-hare-coursing-now-in-force)
18. [Trail hunting set to be banned, GOV.UK, 26 March 2026](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/trail-hunting-set-to-be-banned)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Individual sports and outdoor recreation › Equestrian and animal sports › Other organized animal sports › Dog sports and trials*
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