In the year 1830, Reverend Phillip Honeywood of Great Britain, established a breeding program. It is believed that this formed the basis for the modern Beagle breed.
The North Country Beagles and Southern Hounds were involved. Records on this were not kept, therefore one can only speculate as to other breeds that were used. The first new Beagle that was created were the Honeywood’s Beagles. These were still different than today’s Beagle; they were smaller and had a pure
white coat.
Still wanting to create a better breed, a man by the name of Thomas Johnson worked on producing dogs that had a great appearance and were also great hunters. His work lead to two different breeds: One with a rough coat of fur and one with a smooth coat of fur.
The rough-coated Beagle survived until the beginning of the 20th century, and there were even records of one making an appearance at a dog show as late as 1969, but this variety is now extinct.