THE COMMON HARE 
LEPUS TIMIDUS 
F rom the earliest times, as attested by ancient and modern 
writers, the hare has been regarded as one of the most notable 
animals of the chase. Figures of it are to be found in the paintings 
and sculptures of the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, Greek 
authors like Xenophon and Arrian wrote famous treatises on 
hunting and coursing it, and the Saxon hunter of the ninth 
century,as we learn from the “Colloquy of ArchbishopyElfric,’’ enumerated 
hares amongst the wild animals that were sometimes taken in his nets. 
The Anglo-Norman Kings set a high value on the hare as affording 
good sport when hunted with fast hounds, and early writers on the chase, 
both French and English, have devoted much space in their manuscripts 
to the nature of the animal and the mode of hunting it. Guillaume Twici, 
huntsman to Edward the Second, in his “ L’Art de Venerie,” written about 
1327, places the hare at the head of his game -list as “ the most mar- 
vellous beast which is on this earth” — “Purcoe qe ele est la plus merveilouse 
beste ke est en ceste terre.”* Gaston de Foix, in his famous “ Livre de 
Chasse,” 1387, subsequently translated, with additions, by Edward, second 
Duke of York (between 1406 and 1413), in “The Master of the Game,” 
the oldest English work on hunting, expressed the opinion that the 
hare showed more sport in hunting than any other beast for its size. 
The compiler of the treatise on hunting in “ The Book of St Albans ” 
(1486) evidently had in mind the words of Gaston de Foix, or his trans- 
lator, when writing of the hare, “ That beest kynge shall be callyd of all 
venery, for he is the mervueylloust beest that is in ony londe.” 
Just as Edward, Duke of York, when translating the work of Gaston 
de Foix, made sundry additions to the original French text, so in Queen 
Elizabeth’s time did George Turbervile, in his “ Noble Arte of Venerie 
or Hunting ” (1575), copy from and augment the celebrated French treatise 
of Jacques du Fouilloux, the first edition of which was printed in 1561. 
This famous work, written from the personal experience of the author, 
a gentleman of Poitou, became extremely popular, and passed through 
*The English version of Twici, or Twety, as the name is sometimes written, is given by Halliwell and Wright in 
Reliquiae Antiguce, 1841, vol. i, p. 149, and by Sir Henry Dryden who, in 1843, printed an edition of the French text 
together with a translation and notes. 
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