84 Next to the Ground 



originally signified. According to an old invent- 

 ory, they brought the mark with them, upon 

 the ears of some pigs, white with a black list 

 over the loins. No doubt the pigs were both 

 marked and listed like others that, before com- 

 ing out, the Bakers had sent feeding in the New 

 Forest through the time of pannage. 



Pannage ran for six weeks from the first 

 of September. For every hog feeding through 

 it, a shilling was paid to the king's majesty, 

 through the hand of his verdurer. Most 

 likely the king's majesty never touched a groat 

 of the shilling, but his liege subjects revelled 

 in rashers of beech-nut bacon. Joe liked to 

 think of that old time the hogs going out 

 in charge of the village herd, to range and riot 

 through the woodland, and sleep at night in 

 the sweet-smelling new-fallen leaves. He had 

 three books about the royal forests. One of 

 them was old so old it was full of puzzling 

 long esses, which half the time he took at first 

 for efs. They were the books of books for 

 winter nights and rainy Sundays. He was 

 sure he would have read them over and over, 

 and loved them quite as he did, even if no 

 traditions had come down to give a personal 

 accent to the forest history. 



Something else had come down. Atavism, 

 the tendency to throw back, is strong in all 

 domestic animals. The throwing back is 



