54 THE HUNTED HARE 



The pack full-opening various, the shrill horn 

 Resounded from the hills, the neighing steed 

 Wild for the chase, and the loud hunter's shout, 

 O'er a weak harmless, flying creature all 

 Mixed in mad tumult and discordant joy. 



JAMES THOMSON : The Seasons (Autumn). 



NOTES 



[Thomson was in his thirtieth year when, in 1730, he pub- 

 lished Autumn. Field sports naturally fall to be considered in 

 a poem descriptive of Autumn ; but, as Thomson himself said, 

 they ' are not subjects for the peaceful muse '. His sympathy is 

 with the hunted creature, as was that of Cowper, Burns, and 

 Wordsworth. For evidence of Wordsworth's sympathy see 

 Hart-Leap Well ; for Burns's see his Lines on Seeing a Wounded 

 Hare Limp by Me, or the Autumn Song to Peggy beginning 

 * Now westlin' winds and slaught'ringguns.' Shakespeare's Hare 

 hunt, in Venus and Adonis, shows how keen his interest in the 

 sport must have been : 



And, when thou hast on foot the purblind hare, 

 Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot 1 his troubles 

 How he outruns the wind, and with what care 

 He cranks 2 and crosses with a thousand doubles 3 : 

 The many musits 4 through the which he goes 

 Are like a labyrinth to amaze 5 his foes. 



Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep, 



To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell ; 



And sometime where earth-delving conies keep 6 , 



To stop the loud pursuers in their yell ; 



And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer 



(Danger deviseth shifts ; wit waits on fear), 



1 get beyond. 2 bends. 3 returnings. 4 gaps or 



small holes. 5 bewilder. 6 have their habitat. 



