[Sca-cooks] Messenger Hares

[Johnna Holloway]

I first came across messenger hares in this imported volume:

Westwood, Jennifer and Jacqueline Simpson. */The Lore of the Land/*. 
London: Penguin Books, 2005.
It also turns up in Malcolm Jones' */The Secret Middle Ages/*. Sutton, 
2002 in the section titled
"The Hare Messenger"on pages 137-138.
The story concerns a group of peasants that are late with the rent. They 
catch a hare, being fleet of foot,
and attach the rent in a pouch around the hare's neck. They then tell 
the hare to take the pouch to
the landlord. Of course the hare runs off and is never seen again. the 
tale dates back to Odo of Cheriton
in the 13th century. Hares that can carry letters appear in other tales, 
and the tales always comment upon the foolishness of those that would 
dispatch a hare in such circumstances.

Both books include a picture of a carving from the interior of Saint 
Mary's Church in Beverley, England.
"Founded c. 1120, St Mary's was soon adopted by the Guilds. A tower was 
added in 1524. The tiny Chapel of St Michael, with its ingenious spiral 
staircase dates from the same period as the Percy tomb in the Minster. 
140 carvings of medieval musical instruments decorate the Minister and 
St Mary's. The extraordinary chancel ceiling, painted in 1445, is a 
pictorial record of the kings of England."
"prominent upon the arch which leads into St Michael's chapel is the 
carved stone figure of a rabbit dressed in human clothes and carrying a 
staff. This is known as the pilgrim rabbit because it is dressed in the 
manner of a pilgrim in bygone times. The church authorities are so proud 
of this rabbit that it has been adopted as St Mary's church logo."

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Mary%27s_Church_-_The_Pilgrim_Rabbit.jpg   


Or Search under "pilgrim rabbit" in Google images to see pictures.

The question here is how old is the carving. Jones uses the word 
"contemporary" but contemporary to what?
The Middle Ages or to early Victorian England? There is an association 
that indicates that perhaps
Charles Dodgson saw this very carving in the church when he was young 
and that he recycled it into
his White Rabbit that leads Alice astray in Wonderland. The White Rabbit 
in one scene reaches into
his pouch and pulls out a sandwich.

The White Rabbit Chocolate Shop says the carving dates to 1325 as does 
the wikimedia entry.
http://www.white-rabbit-chocolate.co.uk/story.html

I think it looks like inspiration for those Easter Rabbit chocolate 
molds myself.

So there it is

Johnnae




Johnna promised
> ---
> I think tomorrow we should discuss chocolate bunnies and messenger hares
> because I have come across this neat church carving of a rabbit that 
> looks like
> a number of chocolate molds.
>
>
> Johnnae