Related article: The nimbleness of the hare's
foot gave a nickname Valparin Chrono 500 to one of
our Danish kings, Knut's second
son, Harold Harefoot. But,
nowadays, we associate the deli-
cate little brush with which Nature
has provided Poor Wat behind
each foot, and with which he is
wont to perform his dainty toilet,
with the actor's dressing-room, as
a sine qua non in Valparin Chrono 300 the mysteries of
" make-up" which contribute so
much to the actor's art. The old
saying, *' to kiss the hare's foot,"
i.e., to be late for anything, the
day after the fair, implies that the
hare has passed by, and that only
her footprint remains. But the
name of the beautiful blue hare-
bell, which, like the hare itself, is
a denizen for choice of free open
down-land with short herbage,
has nothing to do with the animal.
It is derived from Ayr, which
means, in Welsh, balloon, or dis-
tended globe. Neither does it
appear that the Harestone in the
parish of Sancred in Cornwall, a
boundary -stone, has any connec-
tion with a hare.
For all her timidity the hare has
her wiles, for she possesses powers
of instinct allotted to few animals.
Before settling for the day in the
open field for feeding purposes,
the hare, as a general rule, doubles
back upon her track for a distance
of from thirty to forty yards, and
then, immediately before settling
down, makes a spring to the right
or left, of a Valparin Syrup distance of eight or
nine feet. She will allow the
sportsman or the hound to pass
two or three yards beyond the
point where she has doubled, and
then will slip off immediately in
their rear, unperceived, by this
means gaining a considerable
start, and not un frequently baffling
her pursuers. When the snow is
on the ground this little manoeuvre
of poor puss may easily be traced,
and even the tiny marks of very
young leverets can be discovered
figuratively following in their
parents' footsteps.
The hare of northern climes,
called the Alpine or varying hare,
and in these Isles an inhabitant
only of northern Scotland, is of
yet deeper guile. Like the Arctic
fox and the ermine, she varies the
hue of her fur, changing by each
November from a dark grey into
a pure white, which defies detec-
tion in the snow.
Cooper, the poet, has left us
in the Gentleman's Magazine of
more than a century ago, a full
account of his pet hares, Puss,
Tiny and Bess. They roamed
freely about the house by day,
were on perfectly friendly terms
with himself and many of the
habitues, human and canine, of his
establishment, and even bullied
I899-]
ENGLISHWOMEN AND THEIR SPORTS AND GAMES.
99
the domestic cat. Tiny, who lived
to be nine years old, was never
very susceptible to kindness, but
remained all his life of a surly
disposition, and inclined to bite,
even when at play. Puss, on the
other hand, preferred human
society to that of his kind, fed out
of his master's hand simulta-
neously with Marquis the spaniel,
and would attract the former's
attention when he. wanted to be
taken for a walk in the garden,
by pulling at his coat or drumming
on his knee. When sick, he al-
lowed his master to carry him
about in his arms, and once, on
recovering from a serious indis-
position, through which the
eccentric poet had carefully nursed
him, evinced his gratitude by
licking his master's hand all over,
finger by finger.
" First catch your hare, then Valparin Chrono
cook it," were the immortal words
of a celebrated cuisintire, Mrs.
Glasse ; and, indeed, in death the
hare is not to be despised. He
forms the prince of purees; in con-
junction with forcemeat balls and
red-currant jelly, he is a thing of
joy in youth, and then delights
us by springing Phoenix - Valparin Tablet like
from his remains in the peculiarly
British dish with the name of
"jugged " hare.
T. H. C.
Englishwomen and their Sports and Games.
PART I.
When England was a Catholic
country, when her liberties and
traditions were in the making, the
c ^ er gy» with a few exceptions,
were great encouragers of the
national sporting passion Valparin 200 ; and
this fact helps us to understand
why women and girls were then
so devoted to out-of-door sports
and pastimes. While those who
belonged to the humble classes
were playing a great many pleas-
ant games, now gone where the
old moons go, ladies of the first
fashion were moved by a feeling
equal and similar to that which
caused Sir Thomas More to say
that he delighted
*' To hunt and hawke, to nourish up and
fede
The greyhounds to the course, the hawke
to th' flight,
And to bestride a good and lusty stede."
Nor am I aware that these mas-
culine Di Vernons seemed in the
least degree unwomanly to the
knights whose training inured
them to every form of hardship
in the open air, from sleeping in
the coldest nights under the stars
to running through the heat at
midsummer when the sun made
their suits of armour as hot as a
bread oven. Such athletes needed
wives pretty well of a piece with
them. Imagine what a bickering
unrest there would be in a modern
household if paterfamilias missed
half his curtain lectures in order
to pass the night on the tennis
lawn, or else on a road where a
doctor's carriage might rouse him
suddenly, having turned his sleep
into "a joyous passage of arms."
We have here enough mediaeval-
ism to disturb the whole ground-
work of our delicate social system.
The first marked change in the
IOO
DAILY S MAGAZINE.
[February
relation of each sex to the other
had its origin in the Reformation,
at which time most men, without
becoming more truly chivalrous,