2 r 2 The Poets Beasts. 



"Who had more joy to range the forest wyde, 

 And chase the salvage boar with busie payne, 

 Than serve his lady's love ; " 



goes out loveless into the wilderness. 



Boar-hunting had therefore — at least so it would appear — 

 momentous consequences in the days of chivalry; now-a-days 

 it is a mere pastime with Englishmen ; they call it " stick- 

 ing pigs." None of them expects knighthood for the per- 

 formance, nor does the pig-sticker expect his wife to go 

 forth mad during his absence. Of course it may be said 

 that boars are not what they were " in the good old days," 

 and there the poets have the best of it — for their boars are 

 perfect hurricanes. But I protest against their handling of 

 them. The valour of the gallant brute was worth a passing 

 compliment. 



" Hero-like, who on their crest still wore 

 A lion, panther, leopard, or a boar." 



Now the three first animals mentioned in Lovelace's lines 

 are, according to the traditions of the College of Arms, one 

 and the same beast. Virtually, therefore, the boar is the 

 only animal except the lion that was considered worthy by 

 ancient chivalry to be worn as a badge. 



" Tiisky boars ' 

 Razed out of all thy woods, as trophies hung, 

 Grin high-emblazoned on thy children's shields." 



So Planche', in his " Pursuivant of Arms," notes how in 

 Glover's Roll (temp. Henry III.) only three beasts were 

 then borne upon English coats-of-arms, and that one of 

 them was the boar. It shared with the lion and the leopard 

 the honourable distinction of emblazonment upon shields. 

 Mrs. Bury Palliscr also, in her most fascinating work on 



^ Leydi-n's "Albania." 



