'The hare in pastures of in plains is found,
Emblem of human life; who runs the round,
And, after all his wandering ways are done,
His circle fills and ends where he begun,
Just as the setting meets the rising sun.'John Dryden (1631-1700)
I was bimbling around the bookshelves trying to decide which book to read for next month's Endsleigh Salon theme of 'The Wood for the Trees.' We don't read a set book but take along anything we like that relates to the month's theme, a year's-worth of themes chosen at the July meeting when all our whacky suggestions go in a hat and are drawn out randomly. I had read Wildwood - A Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin some years ago but a browse through found his chapter on The Sacred Groves of Devon and his observations about the three hares, a motif that is much-loved chez dovegrey...my tile, by Devon potter Ann-Mari Hopkins, has pride of place in the kitchen.
'...a trio of hares chased each other in a circle. In a neat illusory device worthy of Escher, they shared between them only three ears, which formed a triangle at the centre of the design, yet each animal seemed to have two. The same trompe L'oeil motif appears in seventeen churches across Devon.'
One of those can be found in Tavistock Parish Church..
Another in Chagford...
...a motif we were delighted to find repeated in various guises around the church...
...along with a second ceiling boss which, locked behind the chancel screens, I had to dislocate my shoulder to snap but as you can see I'll endure any amount of pain to make sure you see what I see...
It was to a remote cottage near Chagford, the home of renowned Dartmoor photographer Chris Chapman, that Bookhound and I ventured last summer all because I had read about a wonderful book that Chris had co-authored with Dartmoor-based cultural environmentalist Tom Greeves and historian Sue Andrew. The Three Hares - A Curiosity Worth Regarding had been notoriously difficult to lay hands on locally, but you know what it's like...when you want a book, you need it more than anything, and no matter that you make countless phone calls and drive miles off the beaten track to find a copy. We dragged Chris in from his fields and then made him pose in his Sunday best for this picture (and there may still be copies available here.)
What had started life as The Three Hares Project between the three in 2000, to document and photograph all known examples, has now become this truly splendid book whose reach extends far beyond the county of Devon and a few other locations around the UK, taking in research around the world and with many pleasing medieval links to the Silk Routes, the Mongolian Empire, India, China and more.
This is a pleasingly hefty book, 350 pages, beautifully illustrated and with a fascinating narrative that leaves little doubt about the impression this image has been making on those who have seen and been intrigued by it for centuries. As Tom Greeves elaborates in his conclusion entitled 'Full Circle', the image has been used on many levels...
'...artistic, religious, didactic, philosophical, cosmological, mathematical with different meanings in varied cultures and religions.'
But he also offers the image of the Three Hares as one available for new interpretations. As the trio's research and travels have shown, no single place or culture has a monopoly on its meaning, whilst the resurgence of interest and continued representation does somehow segue perfectly with its endlessly circular and to my mind beautiful and puzzlingly mysterious simplicity.
My love for all things hare-like lives on, currently I have a few hopping around the shelf behind the kitchen sink...
I suspect Roger Deakin might have been intrigued by this book and it is to his folk-loric thoughts about the significance of the image to the working people of Devon that I return..
'Because it was the final animal to bolt from the standing corn as the reapers approached the last of it at the centre of the field, the hare was identified by the old country people as a version of Ceres, the corn goddess, escaping in disguise.'
Sadly we don't see hares around us here, but if we did, that's what I'd think at that moment too.
Or perhaps this...
'Chasing each other in a moon-circle on the roof boss, the trinity of animals suggests the three phases of the moon: waxing, full and waning...
And now of course my mind turns to textiles and quilting designs...
The inspiration of the Three Hares is endless.
Meanwhile there's a fine trail to be done to flush out the Three Hares from the ceiling bosses of the churches of Devon (and a chance to see some beautiful country churches along the way...and probably village tea rooms and cake and things nearby) so we'll be heading out soon, and for anyone else heading down this way here's where you will find them...
Ashreigney, Bridford, Broadclyst, Chagford, Cheriton Bishop, Iddesleigh, Ilsington, Kelly, Newton St Cyres, North Bovey, Paignton, Sampford Courtenay, South Tawton, Spreyton, Tavistock, Throwleigh and Widecombe.
I wonder...do you find the Three Hares intriguing too...
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