In George Jesse's Researches into the History of the British Dog from 1866, the early 17th-century poet and writer Gervase Markham is quoted referring to the beagle as small enough to sit on a man's hand and to the: little small mitten-beagle, which may be companion for a ladies kirtle, and in the field will run as cunningly as any hound whatere, only their musick is very small like reeds. 1.3 Birth and Reproduction. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of the beagle by name in English literature dates from c. 1475 in The Squire of Low Degree. Standards for the Pocket Beagle were drawn up as late as 1901; these genetic lines are now extinct, although modern breeders have attempted to recreate the variety. 1.3 Birth and Reproduction. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of the beagle by name in English literature dates from c. 1475 in The Squire of Low Degree.