THE COOKERY OF THE RABBIT 233 



pulled the string of an irrepressible douche bath. 

 In the bracing climate and sandy soil, the new 

 arrivals multiplied like fleas, and now they tell us that 

 the supperless tramp has only to sit down quietly by 

 the track-side for his supper to jump into his arms. 

 And as mutton in Australasia is still almost a drug, 

 the destructive rabbit is superfluous for home con- 

 sumption. In England he will always find a ready 

 market, though prices may fall with dn excessive 

 supply. There was a time, in the period of the 

 carrier's cart and the sailing smack, when Scotch 

 servants and retainers struck against the rabbits, as 

 they did against the monotony of salmon and sea- 

 trout. Nowadays, from the most northerly shootings, 

 regular consignments are despatched to Liverpool or 

 Hull, to be circulated through the mining districts 

 and the Midlands. The rabbit has become a favour- 

 ite food of the poorer classes, and all they have to 

 learn is more appetising variety in cookery. 



It is suggestive that the rabbit is scarcely men- 

 tioned in the English novel ; except, indeed, in those 

 moral little tales where the virtuous peasant is first 

 seduced into evil courses by snaring a hare or netting 

 a rabbit for a sick wife, whence he passes on to the 

 pot-house and the prison, and possibly to the gallows, 

 after shooting a keeper. Scott, with his broad range 



