Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixvi. (1922), No. 3 21 



they devour worms, frogs, fern, rush and sedge roots," and 

 so on. Some Highland swine were " very small, with long- 

 bristles upon their backs .... flocks of swine are not now 

 (181 1) so numerous in the Highlands as formerly " (13, 14, 25, 

 4i> 67). 



As has been stated, pigs were kept at monasteries. David I 

 of Scotland by a grant permitted the monks of Holyrood to 

 cut wood in the royal forests of Stirling and Clackmannan and 

 to pasture their swine in them. Scottish barons had " huge 

 herds of swine" and ate pork freely (32, i, 233-6). The monks 

 and barons, however, constituted a minority of the population. 

 Many were of alien origin. The Norman barons especially 

 were detested by the great majority of the inhabitants of Scot- 

 land. Before the Battle of the Standard two Norman barons, 

 who had estates in Galloway, visited David I and protested 

 against him leading '"these savage tribes" against the 

 Normans, " whose faithfulness in your defence has made them 

 to be hated by the Scottish race." Saxon intruders were like- 

 wise unpopular. After the death of Malcolm Canmore, Donald 

 Bane set himself " to expel from the country all the foreigners 

 who had intruded into his dominions " (32, I, 243-4). Belgic 

 and Dutch fishermen settled on the shores of the Firth of 

 Forth, and in the burghs trade was chiefly in the hands of 

 Flemings and of settlers from England. It is not surprising 

 therefore to find that the minorities of intruders in Scotland 

 kept pigs and cured and ate pork, and that Aberdeen, in which 

 Flemish and English traders were prominent and influential 

 ultimately became famous among Dutch shipowners for its 

 excellent bacon and salted pork. An interesting reference to 

 bacon is recorded in Pinkerton's History. In 1401 it was 

 enacted by the Scottish Parliament "' that if any unwholesome 

 pork or bacon, or spoilt or foul salmon, was brought to market, 

 it was to be seized by the bailies and sent immediately to the 

 ' lipper folk' (lepers)." Evidently it was thought that the 

 lepers, having- contracted their disease from food, could not be 

 further infected by foul salmon and unwholesome pork. 



How then are we to account for the persisting prejudice 

 against pork in Scotland? The Celts, the medieval clergy, 

 the Angles and Saxons, the Normans, the Vikings and the 

 Flemings who settled in Scotland, reared swine and ate their 

 flesh. There seems to be but one explanation. In Scotland, 

 as in Finland, Northern Arcadia, Anatolia, Syria, Egypt and 

 elsewhere, the prejudice against pork had origin before the 

 birth of Christ. It has been perpetuated in Scotland by the 

 descendants of the indigeneous peoples, the '"common folk," 



