236 COOKERY OF THE HARE 



rooted in the mind of the public, and were only re- 

 moved long years afterwards. Among these crotchets 

 there was one about the hare. Writing in 1660, 

 Doctor Tobias Venner discourses thus quaintly : — 



' Hare's flesh, especially if it be of an old hare, is 

 of a very dry temper, of a hard digestion, and breedeth 

 melancholy more than any other flesh, which the 

 blacknesse thereof convinceth. Wherefore, it is not 

 for the goodnesse of the meat that hares are so often 

 hunted, but for recreation and exercising of the i)ody ; 

 for it maketh a very dry, thick, and melancholick 

 blood, bindeth the belly, and being often eaten, breeds 

 incubus, and causeth fearful! dreams. The younger 

 are far better, by reason that the natural siccity of the 

 flesh is somewhat tempered by the moisture of tender 

 age. The flesh of young hares is somewhat easily 

 digested, is acceptable to the palat and stomack, and 

 yeildeth nourishment laudable enough, yet may I not 

 commend it to such as are affected with melancholy.' 

 We, who have been recently forbidden to eat oysters 

 lest they breed a pestilence within us, can readily 

 believe that for many a long day the eating of hares 

 was in this way made unpopular. As a matter of 

 fact, the prejudice against them seems to have con- 

 tinued until Grimod de la Reyniere, with the autho- 

 rity of Doctor Pedro Rezio de Tirtea Fuera to support 



