By Carina Magyar in Animals — Feb 13, 2023

V: Hare

The golden hare that was taken by a cheat.

A hare mid-sprint. Photo by Joe Myrick / Unsplash

Good morning. Today is quintidi, the 25th of Pluviôse, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate le lièvre, a speedy mammal that can definitely hear you coming.

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Unlike rabbits, no hare species has been domesticated. Hares are loners, living in above-ground nests rather than dug-out warrens, and tend to constantly forage to keep their body temperature high, even in the winter months. This makes them visible year-round, and especially as snows begin to thaw, because that's when they attempt to mate. This ritual begets the phrase "mad as a March hare," but it's not the sex-crazed males that are being referenced. It's the females, who kick and box any would-be suitors to keep them away, or test them for strength and worthiness, depending on which hare experts you believe.

If you want to beat the hare, you move slowly but steadily, right? Aesop's famous fable has that enduring lesson, but in CXC (1982), another hare taught another lesson: if you want to be there first, cheat.

The hare in question is a bejeweled golden pendant in the shape of a hare, and it was buried in Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire, by an artist named Kit Williams. This burial, witnessed by celebrity British television presenter Bamber Gascoigne and no one else, coincided with the publication of Williams' children's book Masquerade. The gimmick was that the illustrations in the book contained enough clues to tell the reader where the valuable hare was buried, and the first one to get there got to keep the prize.

This was the first of a long line of book-based treasure hunts over the years, but it came right out of the gates with the defining feature of such armchair detective works: the person who won didn't play fair.

V: Hare

IV: Knotgrass

VI: Woad

IV: Knotgrass

VI: Woad

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