159. "_Mad as a March Hare._"--In Mr. Mayhew's very interesting work,
_London Labour and the London Poor_, Part xxxiii. p. 112., a collector
of hareskins, in giving an account of his calling, says:
"Hareskins is in--leastways I c'lects them--from September to the
end of March, when hares, they says, goes mad."
Perhaps the allusion to the well-known saying, "as mad as a March hare,"
on this occasion was made without the collector of hareskins being aware
of the existence of such a saying. Is anything known of its origin? I
imagine that Mr. Mayhew's work will bring many such sayings to light.