THE WILD BOAR. 79 
Aubrey has given a minute account of a sculp- 
tured representation of hunting the wild boar, over 
a Norman doorway at Little Langford Church. This 
bas-relief is figured in Hoare’s ‘‘ Modern Wiitshire.” 
After the expulsion of the Danes, and during the 
short restoration of the Saxon monarchy, the sports of 
the field still maintained their ground, and hunting 
and hawking were favourite pastimes. A painting on 
a MS. of the ninth century, in the Cotton Library, 
WILD BOAR HUNTING. FROM A MS. OF THE NINTH CENTURY. 
represents a Saxon chieftain, attended by his hunts- 
man and a couple of hounds, pursuing wild boars 
BY 
it 
vr 
through a wood. 
In the “ Colloquy of Alfric,” a hunter of one of the 
royal forests gives a curious account of his profession. 
When asked how he practises his craft, he replies : 
“T braid nets and set them in a convenient place, and 
set on my hounds, that they may pursue the beasts of 
chase, until they come unexpectedly to the nets, and 
so become entangled in them, and I slay them in the 
nets.” He is then asked if he cannot hunt without 
* Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” p. 5, fig. I. 
