NOTE 2.- Page 223, line 8.

I knew at least one hare that had a friend.

Cowper's mode of treating his tame hares, which he first published in the Gentleman's Magazine, is now so generally printed as a part of his works, and is besides so beautiful a sketch in natural history, that it cannot fail to prove acceptable here :—

IN the year 1774, being much indisposed both in mind and body, incapable of diverting myself either with company or books, and yet in a condition that made some diversion necessary, I was glad of any thing that would engage my attention without fatiguing it. The children of a neighbour of mine had a leveret given them for a plaything: it was at that time about three months old. Understanding better how to tease the poor creature than to feed it, and soon becoming weary of their charge, they readily consented that their father, who saw it pining and growing leaner every day, should offer it to my acceptance. I was willing enough to take the prisoner under my protection, perceiving that, in the management of such an animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should find just that sort of employment which my case required. It was soon known among the neighbours that I was pleased with the present; and the consequence was, that in a short time I had as many leverets offered to me as would have stocked a paddock. I undertook the care of three, which it is necessary that I should here distinguish by the names I them Puss, Tiney, and Bess. Notwithstanding the two feminine appellatives, I must inform you that they were all males. Immediately commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in; each had a separate apartment, so contrived, that their ordure would pass through the bottom of it; an earthen pan placed under each received whatsoever fell, which, being duly emptied and washed, they were thus kept perfectly sweet and clean. In the day time they had the range of a hall, and at night retired each to his own bed, never intruding into that of another.

gave

Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, raise himself upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from my temples. He would suffer me to take him up, and to carry him about in my arms, and has more than once fallen fast asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, during which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows, that they might not molest him, (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of their own species that is sick,) and, by constant care, and trying him with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery; a sentiment which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back of it, then the palm, then every finger separately, then between all the fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted; a ceremony which he never performed but once again upon a similar occasion. Finding him extremely tractable, I made it my custom to carry him always after breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping, or chewing the cud till evening; in the leaves, also, of that vine he found a favourite repast. I had not long habituated him to this taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient for the return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a look of such expression, as it was not possible to misinterpret. If this rhetoric did not immediately succeed, he would take the skirt of my coat

between his teeth, and pull at it with all his force. Thus Puss might be said to be perfectly tamed, the shyness of his nature was done away, and, on the whole, it was visible by many symptoms, which I have not room to enumerate, that he was happier in human society, than when shut up with his natural companions.

Not so Tiney: upon him the kindest treatment had not the least effect. He too was sick, and in his sickness had an equal share of my attention; but if, after his recovery, I took the liberty to stroke him, he would grunt, strike with his fore feet, spring forward, and bite. He was, however, very entertaining in his way; even his surliness was matter of mirth; and in his play he preserved such an air of gravity, and performed his feats with such a solemnity of manner, that in him too I had an agreeable companion.

Bess, who died soon after he was full grown, and whose death was occasioned by his being turned into his box, which had been washed, while it was yet damp, was a hare of great humour and drollery. Puss was tamed by gentle usage; Tiney was not to be tamed at all; and Bess had a courage and confidence that made him tame from the beginning. I always admitted them into the parlour after supper, when, the carpet affording their feet a firm hold, they would frisk, and bound, and play a thousand gambols, in which Bess, being remarkably strong and fearless, was always superior to the rest, and proved himself the Vestris of the party. One evening the cat, being in the room, had the hardiness to pat Bess upon the cheek, an indignity which he resented by drumming upon her back with such violence, that the cat was happy to escape from under his paws, and hide herself.

Such

I describe these animals as having each a character of his own. they were in fact, and their countenances were so expressive of that character, that, when I looked only on the face of either, I immediately knew which it was. It is said that a shepherd, however numerous his flock, soon becomes so familiar with their features, that he can, by that indication only, distinguish each from all the rest; and yet, to a common observer, the difference is hardly perceptible. I doubt not that the same discrimination in the cast of countenances would be discoverable in hares, and am persuaded, that among a thousand of them, no two could be found exactly similar, a circumstance little suspected by those who have not had opportunity to observe it. These creatures have a singular sagacity in discovering the minutest alteration that is made in the place to which they are accustomed, and instantly apply their nose to the examination of a new object. A small hole being burnt in the carpet, it was mended with a patch, and that patch in a moment underwent the strictest scrutiny. They seem, too, to be very much directed by the smell in the choice of their favourites: to some persons, though they saw them daily, they could never be reconciled, and would even scream when they attempted to touch them; but a miller coming in engaged their affections at once; his powdered coat had charms that were irresistible. It is no wonder that my intimate acquaintance with these specimens of the kind has taught me to hold the sportsman's amusement in abhorrence; he little knows what amiable creatures he persecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how cheerful they are in their spirits, what enjoyment they have of life, and that, impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of man, it is only because man gives them peculiar cause for it.

That I may not be tedious, I will just give a short summary of those articles of diet that suit them best.

I take it to be a general opinion that they graze, but it is an erroneous one, at least grass is not their staple; they seem rather to use it medicinally, soon quitting it for leaves of almost any kind. Sowthistle, dandelion, and lettuce, are their favourite vegetables, especially the last. I discovered, by accident, that fine white sand is in great estimation with them; I suppose as a digestive. It happened that I was cleaning a bird cage while the hares were with me; I placed a pot filled with such sand upon the floor, which, being at once directed to by a strong instinct, they devoured voraciously: since that time I have generally taken care to see them well supplied with it. They account green corn a delicacy, both blade and stalk, but the ear they seldom eat; straw of any kind, especially wheat straw, is another of their dainties; they will feed greedily upon oats, but if furnished with clean straw never want them : it serves them also for a bed, and, if shaken up daily, will be kept sweet and dry for a considerable time. They do not, indeed, require aromatic herbs, but will eat a small quantity of them with great relish, and are particularly fond of the plant called musk; they seem to resemble sheep in this, that, if their pasture be too succulent, they are very subject to the rot; to prevent which, I always made bread their principal nourishment, and, filling a pan with it, cut into small squares, placed it every evening in their chambers, for they feed only at evening, and in the night: during the winter, when vegetables were not to be got, I mingled this mess of bread with shreds of carrot, adding to it the rind of apples cut extremely thin; for, though they are fond of the paring, the apple itsel disgusts them. These, however, not being a sufficient substitute for the juice of summer herbs, they must, at this time, be supplied with water; but so placed, that they cannot overset it into their beds. I must not omit, that occasionally they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn, and of the common brier, eating even the very wood when it is of considerable thickness.

Bess, I have said, died young: Tiney lived to be nine years old, and died at last, I have reason to think, of some hurt in his loins by a fall: Puss is still living, and has just completed his tenth year, discovering no signs of decay, nor even of age, except that he has grown more discreet and less frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude without observing, that I have lately introduced a dog to his acquaintance -a spaniel that had never seen a hare, to a hare that had never seen a spaniel. I did it with great caution, but there was no real need of it. Puss discovered no token of fear, nor Marquis the least symptom of hostility. There is, therefore, it should seem, no natural antipathy between dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is trained to it; they eat bread at the same time out of the same hand, and are, in all respects, sociable and friendly.

I should not do complete justice to my subject, did I not add, that they have no ill scent belonging to them, that they are indefatigably nice in keeping themselves clean, for which purpose nature has furnished them with a brush under each foot; and that they are never infested by any vermin. -MAY 28, 1784.

The following extract from one of Lady Hesketh's letters supplies a curious illustration of this little narrative:-" One evening the cat giving one of the hares a sound box on the ear, the hare ran after her, punished her by drumming on her back with her two feet, as hard as drumsticks, till the creature would have actually been killed, had not Mrs Unwin rescued her."

MEMORANDUM FOUND AMONG MR COWPER'S PAPERS.

TUESDAY, March 9, 1786. This day died poor Puss, aged eleven years eleven months. He died between twelve and one at noon, of mere old age, and apparently without pain.

--

NOTE 3.

- Page 224, line 13.

Or turn to nourishment, digested well.

The following passage, which occurs in a letter written from Olney by Lady Hesketh, proves that the poet here only recommends his own practice. "Mrs Unwin's constant employment is knitting stockings, which she does with the finest needles I ever saw, and very nice they are the stockings I mean. Our cousin has not, for many years, worn any other than those of her manufacture. She knits silk, cotton, and worsted. She sits knitting on one side of the table in her spectacles, and he on the other, reading to her (when he is not employed in writing) in his. In winter, his morning studies are always carried on in a room by himself but as his evenings are spent in the winter in transcribing, he usually, I find, does this vis-a-vis Mrs Unwin."

NOTE 4.- Page 225, line 8 from bottom.

And in thy numbers, Philips, shines for aye
The Solitary Shilling.

John Philips was born at Bampton in Oxfordshire, 1676, and died at the age of thirty-two. While at college, Christ-Church, Oxford, he composed the mock heroic poem, the Splendid Shilling," the most popular of all his works, and of which Cowper was an enthusiastic admirer. The other writings of Philips, are Blenheim, finished about the same time, or soon after; and a poem on Cyder, in imitation of Virgil's Georgics. He is a pleasing author, but with slender pretensions to originality of genius.

NOTE 5.- Page 225, last line.

A cucumber, while costly yet and scarce.

This entire description is in bad taste; it is ungracefully technical ; and the subject is not sufficiently interesting or important for poetry.

NOTE 6.- Page 233, line 25.

Lo! he comes ; —

The omnipotent magician, Brown, appears.

Lancelot Brown, or "capability Brown," as he was frequently termed, was born at Kirharle, in Northumberland, 1715. He devoted himself to the science of landscape gardening, in which he attained great eminence, acquired a handsome fortune, and died only one year before the composition of the lines of the text, holding the office of high sheriff of Huntingdonshire. The art is altogether English, and, as intimately connected with our subject, requires some illustration here. From the earliest accounts of ornamental gardening in England, to the Restoration, a taste for "vegetable conceits," winding walks, with labyrinths, mounds, and flights of steps, but on a very contracted scale,

prevailed. Charles II. introduced the French style, as practised by Le Noter under Louis XIV. Nature had little chance with artists who wrought by line and rule; but when the gardens were extensive, there was grandeur, at least, in the lengthened perspective of walks and avenues, though they were straight, as we still see at Marli, Versailles, and Hampton Court. William introduced all the absurd vulgarities of the Dutch school, troopers in yew, maids of honour in wormwood, green dragons cut out of beech hedges, and vases of box, with parterres of the dimensions and design of pocket handkerchiefs. Nature was rescued from these barbarous inflictions by Addison, Burlington, and especially by Pope. Their enlightened theories were executed by Kent, an artist, who, with some affectation, united much knowledge, great zeal, and an ardent admiration of natural beauty. He was succeeded by Brown, who adopted and extended the principles, but rejected the defects—the crinkum crankum walks and horrors of the rectilineal of his predecessor. The two Reptons, and others, bring down the history of English park and landscape gardening to the present day. The principles of this noble art may be thus stated: aid, but never attempt to force, nature; conceal her defects; reveal, but do not expose, her beauties; consult propriety and the genius of the place.

BOOK IV.

NOTE 1.- Page 236, line 4.

Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright.

The structure noticed in this fine introduction, is Olney bridge, consisting of twenty-four arches, placed at irregular distances, and very unequal in size. Its "wearisome but needful length" bestrides the whole width of the valley lying between Olney and Emberton, which, during winter, is often one sheet of water. This occasions frequent damage to the edifice, which is hence so patched as to present now but little of Cowper's bridge."

NOTE 2.-Page 239, line 21.

Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.

"We share in Cowper's walks, or his fireside, and hear him comment on the newspapers or the last new book of travels; converse with him as a kind familiar friend, or hearken to the counsels of an affectionate monitor."-GIFFORD.

NOTE 3.-Page 241, line 13.

That I, and mine, and those we love, enjoy.

"Of all the verses that have ever been directed to the subject of domestic happiness, those in Cowper's Winter Evening are perhaps the most beautiful. In perusing that scene of " intimate delights," "fireside enjoyments," and "homebred happiness," we seem to recover a part of the forgotten value of existence, when we recognize the means of its blessedness so widely dispensed and so cheaply attainable, and find them susceptible of description, at once so enchanting and so faithful."-CAMPBELL.