NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



Wliitmoor House, Guildford. Lady Susan for that is the name 

 of the tame wild boar is thus described by her kind master : 



" My sow of whose fighting stray pigs, &c., I sent you an 

 account some time back originally came from Syria, and was 

 given to me by H.H. the Maharajah Uuleep Singh about six 

 years ago. She is a remarkably fine healthy animal, and her 

 instinct and affection can only be equalled by the dog. She 

 follows me almost daily in my walks like a dog, to the great 

 astonishment of strangers. Of course I only take her out before 

 the crops are up, and too low to injure, during the spring and 

 summer months. 



" I always have her belled to hear when she is in the woods, 

 &c. ; and the bell, which is a good sheep's bell, is fastened round 

 her neck with a strap and a buckle. 



" Her leaping powers are extraordinary either over ' water ' or 

 ' timber,' indeed only a few weeks since she cleared some palings 

 (between which she had been purposely placed to secure her for 

 a time) three feet ten inches in height. Knowing my pig's 

 excellent temper, even when she has young pigs, and when 

 domestic sows are always most savage, I was once guilty of a 

 practical joke. I got a blacksmith who was quite ignorant of 

 even the existence of my pig, to ' come and ring a pig.' The stye 

 being under a building he had to enter it at a low door, which 

 was some distance from the sow's yard, where she was feeding. 

 He entered, shutting the door to keep the pig in, and thinking 

 his subject was an ordinary one and that assistants were 

 following him to hold the cord, &c. He had not been gone- 

 a minute, before I heard the greatest ' runi-ti-tum ' at the doov, 

 and cries of, 'For goodness' sake, sir, let me out' let me out ! 

 1 never saw such a beast in my life ! ' and out came the poor 

 blacksmith, pale with fright, but all the consolation he got was 

 a jolly good laugh at his own expense. From the many places 

 called after the wild boar, as Wild Boar Clough in Cheshire, 

 Branspeth and Brandon in the county of Durham, &c., it must 

 have been very common in England some two or three hundred 

 years back. Perhaps I may be forgiven if I explain the con- 

 nection that Branspeth has with the subject: Bran in the north 

 of England means a boar, and no doubt the 'peth' is a cor- 

 ruption of path, hence Branspeth. Brandon was originally 

 Branden, or the den or the lair of the boar, and, curiously enough, 

 tradition says they were very plentiful in the neighbourhood. 

 Clough signifies a wood along the steep sides of two hills close 

 to each other. The wild boar has long been extinct in the British 

 Islands, but it is common in France, Germany, Italy, the islands of 

 the Mediterranean, Albania, Syria, the north of Africa, and India, 

 VOL. H. F 



