Hare’s to you

This fast-running herbivore, a stand-in for both witches and the Holy Trinity, has inspired centuries of artists, from medieval monks who made it into a dog-chasing predator to Barry Flanagan’s monumental sculptures, as Michael Prodger reveals

THE year 55BC was a bad one for the hares of Britain. With the arrival of Julius Caesar and his legions, things took a turn for the worse. In his Commentaries on the Gallic War, a self-promoting history of his career as Rome’s greatest general, Caesar paused in his descriptions of the warlike tribes he faced and the battles he fought to note that the Britons he encountered ‘do not regard it lawful to eat the hare… they do, however, breed them for amusement and pleasure’. This fastidiousness was bewildering to the invaders from the south, who enjoyed both hunting hares and cooking them. As with so much else, Roman tastes quickly took hold and the hares’ days of being coddled were over. That is not to say that the…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 19, 2025

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