NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 139 
Section II. UNGULATA, Ray. 
OrveER I. ARTIODACTYLA, Owen. 
Tribe I. OMNIVORA, (Betitum, Linn.) 
Famity I, SUID. 
I. SUS, Zinn. 
1,8. Scrora, Zinn. (aut Scrorra). 
Swine. Male, Boar. Female, Sow. 
The Pig is not uncommon in our district, but alas, its noble 
progenitor, the 
Witp Boar, (Sus Aper, Linn.) 
no longer roams our forests as he did in days gone by. 
The names of Brancepeth and Brandon still recal these times, 
and tradition also asserts that a mighty Boar or Brawn, the 
monarch of his race, made his lair on Brandon (Brawn-den) 
Hill, and walked the forest of Brancepeth (Brawn’s Path), as 
Surtees describes, ‘in undisputed sovereignty from the Wear to 
the Gaunless.” “The marshy and then woody vale, extending 
from Croxdale to Ferry Wood, was one of the Brawn’s favourite 
haunts, affording roots and mast, and the luxurious pleasure of 
volutation. Near Cleve’s Cross, Hodge of Ferry, after carefully 
marking the boar’s track, dug a pitfall, slightly covered with 
boughs and turf, and then foling on his victim by some bait to 
the treacherous spot, stood armed with his good sword across 
the pitfall. 
** At once with hope and fear his heart abounds.” 
“ At length the gallant brute came trotting on his onward 
path, and, seeing the passage barred, rushed headlong on the 
vile pitfall. * % * The seal of Roger de Ferrie 
still remains in the Treasury at Durham, exhibiting his old 
antagonist, a boar passant.”* 
_ Many other traces of the existence of this formidable animal 
might be cited, and its head appears to have been a common 
dish with our ancestors. 
The date of its final disappearance is not recorded, but it 
* Surtees, History of Durham, vol. iii., 284, 
