"The pope and bishops hunt the wild deer, the fox, and the hare, in their closed parks, with great cries, and horns blowing, with hounds and ratches running."
I should be glad to have the word ratches satisfactorily explained.
H. W.
[From a note by Steevens on the line in King Lear (Boswell's Shakspeare, vol. x. p. 155.), it appears that the late Mr. Hawkins, in his notes to The Return from Parnassus, p. 237., says, "That a rache is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even fishes, and that the female of it is called a brache:" and in Magnificence, an ancient Interlude of Morality, by Skelton, printed by Rastell, no date, is the following line:
"Here is a leyshe of ratches to renne an hare."
In a following note, Mr. Tollet, after saying "What is here said of a rache, might, perhaps, be taken from Holinshed's Description of Scotland, p. 14.," proceeds, "The females of all dogs were once called braches; and Ulitius upon Gratius observes, 'Racha Saxonibus canem significabat unde Scoti hodie Rache pro cane fœmina habent, quod Anglis est Brache.'">[
"Feast of Reason," &c.—Seeing your correspondents ask where couplets are to be found, I venture to ask whence comes the line—
"The feast of reason and the flow of soul."
I have often heard it asked, but never answered.
H. W. D.