Warren (domestic)

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A domestic warren is an artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. It evolved from the Anglo-Norman concept of free warren, which had been, essentially, the equivalent of a hunting license for a given woodland.

1 Difference between free warren and domestic warren
2 Architecture of the domestic warren
- 2.1 Moat and pale
- 2.2 Pillow mounds
3 Further evolution of the term

[edit] Difference between free warren and domestic warren

The distinction between the two types of warren has been nearly lost in modern English, the older sense of free warren gradually evolving into that of domestic warren. The older sense dates at least from the Assize of Woodstock in 1178^[1] the first recorded use of the newer, domestic sense dates from 1378 (OED), as the draconian grip of the Forest Law was beginning to loosen somewhat.

Then a semantic shift occurred as the terminology "beasts (including rabbit) of warren" and the "vert of warren" became a "warren of rabbits", "rabbit warren", and simply "warren'. The name was appropriated by the commoners who wished to raise domestic rabbits, even though the first necessity for their enterprise was to enclose the area sheltering their stock.^[2]

This was because only by creating a close, or enclosed area for the freeholder's domestic stock of rabbits, could that person claim ownership of the rabbits in it. A domestic rabbit which escaped into a nearby free warren could not be claimed as property, even if the freeholder held title to the soil over which the warren extended, unless that individual also possessed the royal warrant of them, or unless it had escaped from the freeholder's close. A rabbit escaped from the cony-garth could still be claimed as property of the freeholder, so long as recapture appeared possible.

Both types of warren differ from the cunicularium in that the former evolved from forest law, whereas the latter is created especially for the purpose of domestication, usually close to a manor, monastery, or farm house. In all this it should be born in mind that there is a continuous gradation from "wild" to "domesticated", and that distinctions along this scale may be more astutely deemed as differences of degree, rather than of kind. A royal forest is arguably the first step along the road to domestication. One might see a proportion in the likeness, that, as chase is to a park, so is a free warren to a domestic warren.

[edit] Architecture of the domestic warren

The cunicularia of the monasteries may have more closely resembled hutches or pens, than the open enclosures with specialized structures which the domestic warren eventually became. Such an enclosure or close was called a cony-garth, or sometimes conegar, coneygree or "bury" (from "burrow").

[edit] Moat and pale

To keep the rabbits from escaping, domestic warrens were usually provided with a fairly substantive moat, or ditch filled with water. Rabbits cannot swim and generally avoid water. A pale, or fence, was provided to exclude predators.

[edit] Pillow mounds

The most characteristic structure of the "cony-garth" ("rabbit-yard")^[3] is the pillow mound. These were "pillow-like", oblong mounds with flat tops, frequently described as being "cigar-shaped", and sometimes arranged like the letter <E> or into more extensive, interconnected rows. Often these were provided with pre-built, stone-lined tunnels. The preferred orientation was on a gentle slope, with the arms extending downhill, to facilitate drainage. The soil needed to be soft, to accommodate further burrowing. See Schematic diagram of a pillow mound.

This type of architecture and animal husbandry has become obsolete, but numerous pillow mounds are still to be found in England, some of them maintained by English Heritage.

See

Description of mounds, etc.

[edit] Further evolution of the term

Ultimately, the term warren was generalized to include wild burrows:^[4]

The word thus became used of a piece of ground preserved for these beasts of warren. It is now applied loosely to any piece of ground, whether preserved or not, where rabbits breed (see FOREST LAWS).

The use is further extended to any system of burrows, e.g. prairie dog warren. By 1649 the term is found applied to inferior, crowded human accommodations in the meaning "cluster of densely populated living spaces" (OED). Contemporarily the leading use seems to be in the stock phrase "warren of cubicles" in the workplace.