STATUTES RABBIT BAZAAR. 197 



criterion to be observed. They will not bear to be 

 pushed beyond a moderate degree of fatness, and 

 should be taken in time, as they are liable to drop 

 off suddenly. The dropsy and rot must be pre- 

 vented, as they are generally incurable: nor is a 

 rabbit worth the time and pains of a probable cure. 

 Of the ' madness in tame conies,' on which our old 

 writers hold forth, I know nothing. 



By 7 and 8 Geo. IV. if any person unlawfully 

 and wilfully in the night time take any hare or coney 

 in any warren or ground lawfully used for the keep- 

 ing thereof, whether enclosed or not, every such per- 

 son shall be guilty of a misdemeanor ; and persons 

 guilty of the same offence in the day time, or using 

 any snare or engine, are subject to a penalty of five 

 pounds. But this does not extend to the taking in 

 the day time any conies on any sea bank or river 

 bank in Lincolnshire so far as the tide shall extend, 

 or within a furlong of such bank. 



AMPTHILL RABBIT BAZAAR. I have stated at 

 the commencement of this article, that the large 

 concerns had generally ceased. Of late, one has 

 arisen at Ampthill, Beds, upon a more extensive 

 scale than ever before attempted, established by 

 J. H. Fisher, Esq. an agent of his Grace the Duke 

 of Bedford. Upon so extensive a plan, indeed, is 

 this new undertaking, that it may well be styled our 

 grand NATIONAL RABBIT BAZAAR. The building, 

 situated upon an eminence, is square, somewhat re- 

 sembling barracks, with a court withinside the 

 walls, and with thirty acres of fine light land adjoin- 

 ing, under culture of those crops known to be best 

 K 3 



