The Powerstock Hare

I came across this 12th century stone carving of a hare playing a harp at Dorset County Museum, Dorchester. Found at a cottage in Powerstock, Dorset, it is believed to have come from the site of the church at Wytherston, the precise location of which is now unknown - in ruins before 1550, no trace of the church remains.


The hare is a much mythologised creature worldwide, associated with, among other things, the moon, madness, shape-shifting witches and the ghosts of jilted maidens. A harp-playing hare was news to me, however, though Harp and Hare are associated in Ted Hughes' poem, 'The Hare', when a hare is hit by a car: "As if the car had crashed into a flying harp//So that the driver's nerves flail and cry/Like a burst harp."








http://www.hare-preservation-trust.co.uk/index.html