We met up in the park today with a lady that used to breed Beagles many, many years ago. She’s always said that Beanie is very much like her first Beagle – and she was only one generation away from a working Beagle. She said that Beanie would look very much at home in a pack of English hunting Beagles. I came home and did a search for pictures of packs of English hunting Beagles and found this…..
Is that our little Beanie in the middle of the picture????
I thought I’d see how far I could trace back Beanie’s pedigree. She’s such an outstanding little athlete….she must have got those genes from somewhere! Here’s what I’ve found so far.
I’ve traced back down through the bitches on Beanie’s mother’s side….
Newlin Kelsey (2001)
Newlin Yazz (1994)
Newlin Nonsense (1990)
Newlin Opium (1983)
Norcis Roxanne At Newlin (1980)
Norcis Hannah (1974)
Korwin Rachel (1972)
Korwin Laura (1969)
Sweet Selina (1965)
Pippa or Lairfad (?)
Rossut Midget
Rossut Fashion (1960)
Rossut Variant (1958)
Virtuoso
Veronesse
Eton College Viper (1951)
Eton College Vigilant (1944)
…and got as far back as Eton College Vigilant in 1944. Eton College Vigialant was mated to Old Berekeley Locksmith (1948)
Here’s a link to a1945 picture of the Old Berkley Beagles
And a current picture of the Old Berkley Beagles.
Old Berkeley Beagles
A link to a 1932 picture of the Eton College Beagles
And a current day picture of Eton College Beagles…
Eton College Beagles
I think our breeder friend from the park is right about where Beanie gets her lean, lithe build from! Look at that little dog at the front of the Eton College Beagles picture. Beanie’s certainly got the refined looks and pretty face of the show Beagles, but her build definately seems to be a throw back to her Working Beagle roots!
The slope of her neck and back and overall look is just the same! Amazing. We have some that love to run and some that would rather sleep on the couch but I think they all have some of the hunting breed genes in them.
Hi River,
When you see Beanie amongst other Beagles she stands out a mile as she’s very slender and long legged compared to them. But she’d look right at home amongst this lot!
I’ve been in touch with Old Berkeley Beagles and the Eton College Archivist to see if they can give me any further info. I’ve also asked Beanie’s breeder, Liz, to see if she can give me pictures or more info on the other dogs in the list.
Hopefully I can get pictures going right the way back to Beanie’s hunting Beagle roots.
I’ve had a lovely reply from the Eton College Archivist, who said it was lovely to get my request as normally they’re asked to research human family trees! They’re going to spend a little bit of time digging out info and photos, but we can go and search the archives ourselves too.
so watch this space – hopefully we’ll get a lovely detailed history of Beanie’s family.
I’ve spoken to Pat Sutton who’s parents owned the Rossut kennels that bred Rossut Midget, Rossut Fashion and Rossut Variant. As far as she recalls, her mother purchased Rossut Variant from a Mrs English who owned Virtuoso and Veronesse.
Virtuoso and Veronesse were in fact pack hounds, as were all the Beagles in the line prior to Rossut Variant. I asked her if these very early Rossut Beagles were different from today’s Beagles and she said very much so. They were much finer boned. I described Beanie and she agreed that she sounded very much like a throw back to the pack Beagles. Apparantly these throw backs do occur from time to time.
She tells me that Eton College will have very detailed breeding books so they should be able to provide me with lots of information.
Unfortunately Pat doesn’t have any photos that she can easily find, but hopefully we’ll get some from the Eton College archives.
Liz Calikes has also provided stacks of information and resources to help with the search. She says that she’s seen pack Beagles being judged at Peterborough and they are indeed lighter boned and also taller on the leg and with more pointed faces.
So iit’s begining to look as if Beanie’s exceptional athleticism might well be down to an extra quota of working Beagle genes :)