THE COMMON HARE. 373 



For there his smell with others being mingled, 

 The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt, 

 Ceasing their clamorous cry, till they have singled, 

 With much ado, the cold fault cleanly out, 



Then do they spend their mouths ; Echo replies, 



As if another chace were in the skies. 



By this poor Watt* far off, upon a hill, 



Stands on his hinder legs with list'ning ear, 



To hearken if his foes pursue him still : 



Anon their loud alarums he doth hear, 



And now his grief may be compared well 

 To one sore sick that hears the passing bell. 



Then shalt thou see the new-bedabled wretch 

 Turn and return, indenting with the way : 

 Each envious briar his weary legs doth scratch, 

 Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay : 



For misery is trodden on by many; 



And being low, never reliev'd by any." 



(Venus and Adonis.) 



As hares come under the denomination of game, they are 

 protected from general destruction with much care and rigour j 

 and woe to the man, be he peasant or philosopher, who without 

 a licence should kill one of them, even if it eat the pinks in his 

 garden night after night. Still greater woe to the hungry 

 gipsy, or other way-farer on Nature's common, if, for the 

 gratification of his vulgar appetite, he have the audacity to 

 kill one of these most precious animals, which, as the Society 

 for the Prevention of Cruelty seem tacitly to admit, were created 

 to give sport to his superiors j and the punishment he receives 

 for his enormous offence, is no more than what the law told 

 him to expect from those charitable people who never forgive 

 others who trespass against their hares. Thin soup is no doubt 

 better for the poor than hare's flesh, which, according to 

 ancient medical opinion, might make them melancholy ; and 

 exercise on the treadmill is better adapted to their " recreant 

 limbs," than any field sports. All country squires and justices 



* Watt and Puss are familiar terms for a hare. 



