HarePoetry

Puss, Tiney and Bess

by William Cowper

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 conditon that made some diversion necessary, I was glad of anything that would engage my attention without fatiguing it. The children of a neighbor 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 conscented that their father, who saw it pining and growing leaner every day, should offer it to my acceptance.

From "The Garden"

William Cowper

Well--one at least is safe. One shelter'd hare

has never heard the sanguinary yell

of cruel man, exulting in her woes.

Innocent partner of my peaceful home,

Whom ten long years' experience of my care

Has made at last familiar; she has lost

Much of her vigilant instinctive dread,

Not needdful here, beneath a roof like mine.

Yes--thou may'st eat they bread, and lick the hand

That feeds thee; thou may'st frolic on the floor

At evening, and at night retire secure

To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarm'd;

For I have gain'd the confidence, have peldg'd

All that is human in me to protect

Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love.

If I survive thee I will dig thy grave;

And, when I place thee in it, sighing, say,

I knew at least one hare that had a friend.

-from William Cowper, A Critical Life

Marice J Quinlan

The animals proved to be a source of great diversion. Cowper carefully observed their feeding habits, their awareness of their environment, their mirth-provoking antics. In the evening, after super, he would bring them into his little parlor and watch them frisk and gambol on the carpet. Each of them had its own distinctive character and dispositions he noted. Tiney was sulky and untractable; Bess was the drollest and most courageous; Puss, the tamest of the three. Cowpers tenderness toward the animals and his hatred to the barbarities so often inflicted upon them in his day were admirably expressed in a charming prose piece on his leverets which appeared in the Gentlemen's Magazine. Here he observed, "You will not wonder, Sir, that my intimate aquaintence with these specimens of the kind has taught me to hold the sportsman's amusements in abhorrence; he little knows what amiable creatures he persecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how cheerful they are in spirits, what enjoyments they haveof life, and that impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of man, it is only because man gives them peculiar cause for it." His hares and other animals aquired also have been the subject of several poems in which he appealed to his readers's sense of compassion for the brute creation. This appeal sounded a new note a the time when bearbaiting and cockfightng were a favorite passtime in the British public. Cowper, thus, was at the forefront of a movement to practice kindness to animals and his verses no doubt did much to create the notably compassionate attitude of later times.

...he (Cowper) first constructed an elaborate little house for his leverets. He described it as consisting of three apartments into which they could retire for sleep and a common hall in which they could range in the daytime.

epitaph on a hare

William Cowper

Here lies, who, hound did ne'er pursue,

Nor swifter greyhound follow,

Whose foot ne'er tainted the morning dew,

Nor ear heard huntsman's halloo;

Old Tiney, surliest of his kind,

Who nursed with tender care,

And to domestic bounds confined,

Was still a wild-Jack-hare.

Thought duly from my hand he took

His pittance every night,

He did it with a jealous look

And, when he could, would bite.

His diet was of wheaten bread,

and milk, and oats, and straw;

Thistles, or lettuces instead,

with sand to scour his maw.

On twigs of hawthorn he regaled,

On pippin's russet peel,

And when his juicy salads failed,

Sliced carrots pleased him well.

A Turkey carpet was his lawn,

Whereon he loved to bound,

To skip and gambol like a fawn,

And swing his rump around.

His frisking was at evening hours,

For then he lost his fear,

But most before approaching showers

Or when a storm drew near.

Eight years and five round-rolling moons

He thus saw steal away,

Dozing out all his idle noons,

And every night at play.

I kept him for his humour's sake,

For he would oft beguile

My heart of thoughts that made it ache,

And force me to a smile.

But now beneath his walnut shade

He finds his long last home,

And waits, in snug concealment laid,

Till gentler Puss shall come.

He, still more aged feels the shocks,

From which no care can save,

And partner once of Tiney's box,

Must soon partake his grave.

** Young Hares are termed leverets. They are born with fur, have vision, and are able to ambulate. The birth process can occur in an open area, perhaps in a shallow depression in the ground. The leverets are born, cleaned, fed, and then the doe (mother) leaves. Within hours, the leverets have moved away from the birth site and remain crouched down, immobile in the grass, several meters, apart from each other. Each evening shortly after sunset the doe and the leverets meet at the birth site to nurse. As time progresses the distance each leveret travels from the birth site is increased and the nursing time is decreased, until one day, the doe does not return and the young are expected to survive on their own.

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 neighbors 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 could have stocked a paddock. I understook the care of three...

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 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 cermony 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 leavesof a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud til evening; in the leaves also of that vine he found a favorite repast. I had not long habituated him to the 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 expresion 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 one the whole of it 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...

Puss is still living, and has just completed his tenth year, discovering no signs of decay, nor even of age, except that he is grown more discreet and less frolicksome than he was. I cannot conclude, without observing that I have lately introduced a dog to his aquaintance, 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 pursuitof the one occasions the flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is trained to it; they eat bread togethr at the same time out of the same hand, and are in all respects sociable and friendly.

My Conclusions and Speculations

Although, it is unclear exactly which hare Cowper is referring to in his first poem, From a Garden, I am convinced he was writing of his beloved Puss!

The second poem, epitaph on a hare clearly refers to Tiney. This wonderful tribute affords the reader a unique insight into the life of a House Rabbit over two hundred years ago. Cowper loved and treasured his hares, delighting in their antics and tenderly caring for them when they were ill. Tiney was not as tame as Puss and had a tendency to bite, but the poet loved him anyway, in spite of his "wild rabbity ways".

Cowper's House Rabbits enjoyed a diet of wheaten bread, milk, oats, straw, thistles, lettuces, apple peels, carrots, hawthorn twigs and sand for their teeth. The rabbits took food from the poet's hand and Puss enjoyed the luxury of exploring the garden during the day. Cowper stated that Puss would make it known by expresion and actions when he was ready to go out into the air. How readily we, the rabbits lovers of today, can identify with the antics of Cowper's hares.

The hares were let out each evening into the parlor, amazing and astouning their master by racing about, leaping and "flopping on their rumps." Approaching storms seemed to excite them and they knew no fear. Tiney lived for eight and a half years, sharing Puss's box (BONDED BUNNIES!)

Cowper buried his old friend, Tiney, beneath a walnut tree, after making him as comfortable as he could. (I buried my little Harry with a carrot).

In conclusion, rabbits will prove their love over and over, if given the opportunity. They make wonderful, loving pets and will most certainly CHANGE the people who love them forever.

So, it is true...

You're Nobody 'Til Some Bunny Loves You!

-from William Cowper, A Biography

By James King

Three years earlier, in August 1780, Cowper had been alarmed when his favorite pet hare, Puss gnawed theough "the springs of a Lattice Work" and esacaped Orchard Side. He sent Richard Coleman to retrieve the wily hare, but Pus evaded capture.

She ran right through the town, and down the lane that leads to Dropshort. A little before she came to the house (Richard) got the start and turned her. She pushed for the town again and soon after she enter'er it, sought shelter in Mr Wagstaff's Tan Yard, adjoining to old Mr Drakes. Sturge's harvest men were there encountered the Tan Pitts full of water, & while she (Puss) was struggling out of one pit and plunging into another, and amost drowned, one of the men drew her out by the ears and secured her. She ws then well washed in a bucket to get the lime out of her coat, and was brought home in a sack at 10 O'clock. The frolic cost us four shilllings but you may suppose we did not grudge a farthing of it. The poor creature recieved only a little hurt in one of her claws, and in one of her ears, & is now almost as well as ever.