50 COWPER'S THREE TAME HARES 



No 



natural 



antipathy 



between 



dog and 



hare. 



The hare 

 a clean 

 animal. 



had never seen a hare to a hare that had never seen 

 a spaniel. I did it with great caution, but there was no 

 real need of it : Puss discovered no token of fear, nor 

 Marquis the least symptom of hostility. There is 

 therefore, it should seem, no natural antipathy between 

 dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the 

 flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is 19 

 trained to it. They eat bread at the same time out 

 of the same hand, and are in all respects sociable and 

 friendly. 



I should not do complete justice to my subject did I 

 not add that hares have no ill scent belonging to 

 them; that they are indefatigably nice in keeping 

 themselves clean, for which purpose nature has fur- 

 nished them with a brush under each foot ; and that 

 they are never infested by any vermin. 



NOTES 



[Cowper's prose account of his hares was published in The 

 Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1784 : he wrote it in May of the 

 same year. He was then living at Olney, with Mrs. Unwin, and 

 pleasantly engaged in the composition of his great work The 

 Task, begun in the summer of 1783 at the instigation of Lady 

 Austen. He sent other contributions to The Gentleman's 

 Magazine after this, both verse and prose ; among these his 

 Epitaph on a Hare, 



Here lies, whom hound did ne'er pursue, 



Nor swifter greyhound follow, 

 Whose foot ne'er tainted morning dew, 



Nor ear heard huntsman's hollow, 

 Old Tiney, surliest of his kind, 



Who, nurst with tender care, 

 And to domestic bounds confined, 



Was still a wild Jack-hare. 



