114 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



occupation somewhat of poetry and sentiment ; instancing, 

 moreover, the obedience to which large herds of usually 

 unmanageable brutes may be reduced, as affording a 

 striking proof of the power that man still possesses over 

 the animal creation. 



You may see the swineherd busily employed in seeking 

 out some retired part of the forest, where grows a stately 

 beech, free of underwood, and within reach of a clear 

 stream. This found, he proceeds to wattle around the 

 stem a strong circular fence of the required dimensions, 

 and, after covering the roof with boughs and sods, he fills 

 it with abundance of fern and straw. A shelter being thus 

 prepared, he next proceeds to collect a grunting colony 

 among the neighbouring farmers, with whom he agrees 

 for a shilling a head, and generally succeeds in obtaining 

 at least five or six hundred hogs. Behold him, then, 

 driving his ungainly flock to their destined habitation, 

 where he has prepared a plentiful supply of acorns, or 

 rather beech-mast, agreeing in this respect with Pliny, 



