GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 29 



by Sharon Turner in his History of the Antlo- Saxons, we find the 

 right of pasturage for swine conveyed by deed : " I give food for 

 seventy swine in that woody allotment which the countrymen call 

 Wolferdinlegh." The locality of the swine's pasturage, as here 

 described, has a somewhat ominous title, referring as it does to the 

 haunt of an animal, from incursions of which, on flocks of sheep 

 ind herds of swine, during the Saxon period of our history, both 

 ,he shepherd and the swineherd had to preserve their respective 

 charges. The men employed in the duties generally thralls, or 

 borne slaves of the soil were assisted by powerful dogs, capable 

 of contending with a wolf, at least until the swineherd came with 

 his heavy quarter-staff or spear to the rescue. In Sir Walter Scott's 

 novel of Ivanhoe, the character of Gurth is a true, but of course 

 somewhat overcolored picture of an Anglo-Saxon swineherd, as is 

 that of his master of a large landed proprietor, a great proportion of 

 whose property consisted in swine, and whose rude but hospitable 

 board, was liberally supplied with the flesh. 



Long after the close of the Saxon dynasty, the practice of feed- 

 ing swine upon the mast and acorns of the forest was continued, 

 till our forests were cut down and the land laid open for the plough ; 

 even yet, in some districts, as the New Forest of Hampshire, the 

 custom is not discontinued, and in various parts of the country, 

 where branching oaks in the hedgerow overshadow the rural and 

 secluded lanes, the cottagers turn out their pig or pigs, under the care 

 of some boy, to pick up the fallen acorns in autumn. Pigs turned 

 out upon stubble fields after harvest, often find in oak copses, in 

 October and November, a welcome addition to their fare. 



The large forests of England were formerly royal property ; 

 nevertheless the inhabitants of the adjacent towns, villages, and 

 farms enjoyed both before and long after the Conquest, under cer- 

 tain conditions of a feudal nature, and probably varying according 

 to circumstances, and the tenures by which lands were held, the 

 right of fattening their swine in these woodlands. The lawful period 

 for depasturing swine in the royal forests extended from fifteen 

 days before Michaelmas, to forty days afterwards, and this was 

 termed the pawnage month. This term was not, however, very 

 strictly adhered to ; many herds were suffered to remain in tho 

 forest during the whole year, the consequence of which was that 

 numbers became feral, and were not collected by their owners 

 without difficulty. Little damage would be done in the woods by 

 these swine, but, no doubt, like their wild progenitors, they would 

 take every opportunity of invading the cultivated grounds, and of 

 rioting in the fields of green or ripening corn. 



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