Wat the Hare

In the interesting, though perhaps somewhat partial, account of the unsuccessful siege of Corfe Castle, during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, which is given in the *Mercurius Rusticus*, there is an anecdote which will give a reply to the Query of your correspondent K. The commander of the Parliamentarian forces was Sir Walter Erle; and it was a great joke with his opponents that the pass-word of "Old Wat" had been given (by himself I believe) on the night of his last assault on the castle. The chronicler informs us that "Old Wat" was the usual notice of a hare being found sitting;…