Rabbiting on

 

Recently I came upon a video about the medieval, and later, husbandry of rabbits for food and fur. These methods included the creation not just of warrens but actually creating suitably dry and cosy accommodation in artificial burrows, which still remain in those areas where they were necessary such as south west England and the Pennines. 
 

By contrast the sandy soils of the East Anglian Breckland were ideal for the rabbits to burrowing, and this area appears to have been very much the leading centre of the business right down to the 1940s.

A medieval rabbit warren

Image:St Neots Museum

The video, from Medieval Way, brings out the value of the trade in rabbits and its scale, and can be seen here

There is another, quite short, online account from Medievalists.net of the way the rabbit was so important in daily life at Medieval Rabbit Farming

The pillow mounds are also described by Amusing Planet at Medieval Rabbit Warrens

By the by I recall reading many years ago when the apparently tedious and sentimental Watership Down, which its author said was not about a Nuclear Winter or other apocalyptic event, but “It’s about Rabbits”,was all the rage, of a southern English butcher who put a notice in his shop window  as follows - You Read the Book, You Saw the Film, Now Eat the Rabbit.

Good advice.