THE HARE AND HER NATURE 15 



other beasts it is not so, for if it rain in the 

 morning your journey is lost, and of the hare it 

 is not so. That other [reason] is to seek the 

 hare ; it is a well fair thing, especially who so 

 hunteth her rightfully, for hounds must need 

 find her by mastery and quest point by point, 

 and undo all that she hath done all the night 

 of her walking, and of her pasture unto the time 

 that they start her. And it is a fair thing when 

 the hounds are good and can well find her. And 

 the hare shall go sometimes from her sitting to 

 her pasture half a mile or more, specially in open 

 country. And when she is started it is a fair 

 thing. And then it is a fair thing to slay her 

 with strength of hounds, for she runneth long 

 and gynnously (cunningly). A hare shall last well 

 four miles or more or less, if she be an old male 

 hare. And therefore the hunting of the hare is 

 good, for it lasteth all the year, as I have said. 

 And the seeking is a well fair thing, and the 

 chasing of the hare is a well fair thing, and the 

 slaying of him with strength (of hounds) is a fair 

 thing, for it requireth great mastery on account 

 of her cunning. When a hare ariseth out of her 

 form to go to her pasture or return again to her 



and is more eagerly hunted when she relieves on green corn " 

 {Comp. Sportsma?i, p. 86). It possibly was used later to 

 denote the excrements of a hare ; thus Blome (1686) p. 92, 

 says : " A huntsman may judge by the relief and feed of the 

 hare what she is." 



