“Thursday, 28th Jan. 1858. Went out hunting with the Beagles. Very good run. Found a rabbit and killed. Finished at Salt Hill. Went in there and refreshed ourselves.
“Saturday, 6th Feb. Went out before breakfast with the Beagles and found a hare but did not kill it. Met at Philippi. One dozen rabbits came for sport. We turned them out and killed them. One ran into the river by Upper Hope.
“Thursday, 18th Feb. Stayed out. The Beagles met at the Iron Bridge over Chalvey. Mitchell mi. gave us a live hare to turn out before them. We turned it out in view and she took us a long round by the gasworks, where a man caught and turned it out again, and we ran it for 30 minutes and lost it by Chalvey Village across the road there. Altogether we ran this hare 55 minutes.”
The most interesting development comes a little later. The Masters did not all by any means approve of the institution of Beagles, although they must by now have known of the College pack, which had already existed a whole season. On the 13th of March the following entry appears:
“Goodford sent for me and stopped the Beagles. Didn’t care for that. Joined with Hussey after 4, turned out a brace of hares and killed them. One ran into the Cemetery Churchyard and jumped the wall about five feet high. Coming home we saw a weasel up a tree. Soon stoned him down, and after rushing up and down a hedge for some time Modesty killed it. I have sent it to be stuffed.”
But the Half was nearly at an end, and it closed without further incident. Dr. Goodford made no further attempt to check the progress of Beagling during the fortnight that remained, either because he imagined that his order had been obeyed or because he was disposed to wink at their existence.
This is what the late Mr. Charles Tayleur of Buntingsdale Hall, Market Drayton, said of Charrington and his Beagles in a letter to the late Vice-Provost in 1899:
“Charrington was at my Tutor’s, a friend of mine though a trifle senior, and we used to go hunting with terriers or anything we could find; till it was, I believe, at my suggestion that a few Beagles should be got together, that Charrington adopted the idea. I helped him from the start in conjunction with Johnstone, and afterwards had as coadjutor Chambers and I believe Schneider, but in the early days whipping-in was done by any one appointed that was out. This was certainly the first pack of Beagles, as those started by Lawless were an afterthought on the part of some seniors in the School. We ran a drag to start, and hares when we could find them; but we got into trouble sometimes hunting the latter at first. The first bag-fox we hunted was sent to me from Leadenhall Market by my uncle, the late W. Tayleur of Buntingsdale, and he showed us many a good run—as we kept him pretty fat to prevent him outrunning our small pack. However we eventually lost him in Stoke Park after a good run. I myself saw him crossing the Park, but we had to stop the hounds. The first day we ran him he was taken in the farmyard of a man called Aldridge. I believe that he showed us many a hare afterwards.”
There is rather a good story about old Mr. Tayleur of Buntingsdale, who has long since departed this life. He had an old shepherd on his estate, and one day, shortly after he had changed his name from Taylor to Tayleur, he met him in his park.
“What do you call your dog?” he asked. “Wal,” replied the shepherd, “ah used to call ’im ‘Growler,’ but I suppose I shall ’ave to call ’im ‘Growl-E-U-R’ now.”