32 THE BADGER 



bruic; whereas Brocket in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire is 

 the Saxon broc wudu, 'badger wood.' Brockloch is a 

 common name in many counties, being simply the Gaelic 

 broclach, ' a badger warren.' But it will never do to get 

 among the dictionaries, or I shall never get to the beast 

 itself. Only this may be added, that the name ' badger ' 

 has come into modern use under false pretences. In 

 Middle English, bager means ' a corn-dealer,' a corruption 

 of the old French bladier, bladum meaning ' corn ' in 

 Low Latin. The brock was suspected of eating much 

 corn, which, being practically as omnivorous as a pig, 

 doubtless it does when it gets the chance; so both in 

 English and French it is known as the corn-eater, the 

 name in the latter language being blaireau, from ble, 

 ' corn.' 



Well, the badger has better reason than most creatures 

 for shunning human beings. Enumerated of old among 

 beast of the chase, sportsmen used not to be content with 

 the gallant defence the badger makes against capture. 

 The strength and valour of the beast, coupled with its 

 extraordinary fortitude under pain (it dies mute, like a 

 fox), instead of earning chivalrous consideration, caused 

 it to be reserved for a more heartless fate. In Cox's 

 Gentleman's Recreation (it is the edition of 1697 that lies 

 before me), full instructions are given how to capture the 

 animal, and among the instruments necessary for that 

 purpose the 'gentleman' is counselled to have 'the 

 clamps, whereby you may take a badger out alive to 

 make sport therewith afterwards.' Sport! Happily the 

 Legislature has made badger-drawing a criminal offence, 

 like bull and bear baiting. So long ago as 1821 this 

 villainous kind of cruelty was deprecated in Henry 



