There are a few leverets, or young hares, sold in the streets, and
they are vended for the most part in the suburbs, where the houses
are somewhat detached, and where there are plenty of gardens. The
softness and gentleness of the leveret’s look pleases children, more
especially girls, I am informed, and it is usually through their
importunity that the young hares are bought, in order that they may be
fed from the garden, and run tame about an out-house. The leverets thus
sold, however, as regards nine out of ten, soon die. They are rarely
supplied with their natural food, and all their natural habits are
interrupted. They are in constant fear and danger, moreover, from both
dogs and cats. One shopkeeper who sold fancy rabbits in a street off
the Westminster-road told me that he had once tried to tame and rear
leverets in hutches, as he did rabbits, but to no purpose. He had no
doubt it might be done, he said, but not in a shop or a small house.
Three or four leverets are hawked by the street-people in one basket
and are seen lying on hay, the basket having either a wide-worked lid,
or a net thrown over it. The hawkers of live poultry sell the most
leverets, but they are vended also by the singing-bird sellers. The
animals are nearly all bought, for this traffic, at Leadenhall, and are
retailed at 1_s._ to 2_s._ each, one-third to one-half being profit.
Perhaps 300 are sold this way yearly, producing 22_l._ 10_s._
About 400 young wild rabbits are sold in the street in a similar way,
but at lower sums, from 3_d._ to 6_d._ each, 4_d._ being the most
frequent rate. The yearly outlay is thus 6_l._ 13_s._ They thrive, in
confinement, no better than the leverets.