206 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



" Our Steward has provided this 

 In honour of the King of Bliss 

 Which on this day to be served is 

 In Reginensis Atrio. 

 Caput apri, etc." 



There are many versions of this carol^ one of 

 which was included in a set of carols^ printed by 

 Wynkin de Worde in 1521, and another very 

 curious version is included in the Porkington 

 Manuscript of the 15th century. 



The national dish was often used as an inn sign. 

 Shakespeare frequented the Boards Head tavern, 

 which stood in East Cheap, where the statue of 

 William IV now stands. 



The various uses of the pig — and they are many — 

 are quaintly given by Topsell in his ' History of 

 Four-footed Beasts. ^t He says — 



^' Only I cannot contain myself from the fiction 

 of a Swine's name and testament, or last will, for the 

 mirth and wit thereof, as it is remembered in Coelius, 

 and before in S. Jerom, and lastly by Alexander 

 Brassicanus, and Geo. Fabritius, I will express both 

 in Latine and English in this place. ... In 

 English without offence I may translate it thus : 

 I, M. Grunter Hogson little Pig have made this my 

 last Will and Testament, which because I could not 

 write with my own hand I have caused it to be 

 endited by other. Magirus the Cook said unto me, 

 come hither thou underminer of houses, thou rooter 



* See Warton's * History of English Poetry.' 

 t ' The History of Four-footed Beasts/ by Edward Topsell, 1658^ 

 p. 513. 



