124 KEMIXISCE^TES OF A SPORTSMAX. 



takes uncommon care to have his larder well supplied 

 with food for the sustenance of his young family ; hew- 

 ever, I really think, as an old sportsman, that a gentle- 

 man may have a sufficient stock of game both for the 

 amusement of himself and friends, and at the same time 

 may ensure to the foxhunters that they would scarcely 

 ever have a blank day in his covers. The domestic cat, 

 whenever he has imbibed a taste for the fields and woods, 

 destroys a great number of leverets in the breeding 

 season. To cure him of this propensity, the owner 

 should have his ears cut close when young, as that animal 

 has a great dislike to water getting into them. 



In an old French book on sporting, written by a 

 French nobleman, the following curious recipe for dress- 

 ing an old hare is thus given : — " The dish is one which 

 I invented after having killed a hare one day in Lent, 

 which hare was so old and so dry, that it was impossible 

 to separate the ears with the hand, although we endea- 

 voured to do so several times. In order to make it 

 tender, the idea struck me only to paunch it, and 

 immediately afterwards to put it on the spit without 

 skinning it, heating two shovels red hot ; and to econo- 

 mise the bacon, I cut two slices of it as if for larding, 

 and fastened them with thread to two laths, passing the 

 thread between the rind and the fat of it, in order that 

 it should not burn, and when my hare's skin was dry 

 enough, I set it on fire with a firebrand. The fur being 

 burnt, I took one of the heated shovels, and put the 

 bacon against the hare, making it drop upon it, and 

 continued with the shovels, which were heated one after 

 the other, till I saw that the skin was separating from 

 the body, and then I could take it off easily with the 

 tongs, (which may also be done by the hand,) and after 



