Beagle in end of 1800 century clothes. Beagles are scent hounds used primarily for hunting rabbits to larger hares. They seem to have been used for hare hunting in England as early as the reign of Edward III, who had a pack of up to 120 hare hounds with him on the battlefield during the Hundred Years' War. Among famous beagles stands out Snoopy, the "Peanuts" comic strip character created by Charles Shultz.