Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixvi. (1922), No. 3 9 



seen it before. The affray was settled, and the people 

 mostly reconciled, although some still entertained frightful 

 thoughts about it, and durst not go over the door to a neigh- 

 bour's house after dark without one to set or cry them. One 

 of the crowd who had some compassion on the creature, 

 called out, ' Give it a tork of straw to eat ; it will be hungry.' 



Next day it was conveyed over the Lochar, and it seemed 

 to find its way home. It being near the dusk of evening it 

 came grunting up to two men pulling thistles on the farm 

 of Cockpool. They were much alarmed at the sight, and 

 mounted two old horses they had tethered beside them, 

 intending to make their way home. In the meantime the 

 pig got between them and the houses, which caused them to 

 scamper out of the way and land in Lochar moss, where one 

 of their horses was drowned, and the other with difficulty 

 relieved. The night being dark they durst not part one 

 from the other to call for assistance, lest the monster should 

 find them out and attack them singly ; nor durst they speak 

 above their breath for fear of being devoured. At daybreak 

 next morning they took a different course, came by Cum- 

 longon Castle and made their way home, where they found 

 their families much alarmed on account of their absence. 



They said they had seen a creature about the size of a 

 dog, with two horns in its head, and cloven feet, roaring out 

 like a lion, and if they had not galloped away it would have 

 torn them to pieces. 



One of their wives said, ' Hout, man ! it has been the 

 Gudeman of the Brow's grumphy ; it frightened them a' at 

 the Blackshaws yesterday, and poor Meggie Anderson maist 

 lost her wits, and is ay out o' ae fit into anither sin-syne ' 

 (since then). The pig happened to lie all night among the 

 corn where the men were pulling thistles, and about day- 

 break set forward on its journey for the Brow. One Gabriel 

 Gunion, mounted on a long-tailed grey colt, with a load of 

 white fish in a pair of creels swung over the beast, encoun- 

 tered the pig, which went nigh among the horse's feet and 

 gave a snork. 



The colt, being as much frightened as Gabriel, wheeled 

 about and scampered off sneering, with its tail on his riggin, 

 at full gallop. 



Gabriel cut the slings and dropt the creels, the colt soon 

 dismounted his rider, and, going like the wind, with his tail 

 up, never stopped till he came to Barnkirk point, where he 

 took the Solway Firth and landed at Bowness on the Cum- 

 berland side. 



