i8 THE 'NEW PIG 



idiosyncrasies, whether in health or disease, with a sober 

 and serious sympathy which is highly practical and, 

 incidentally, most entertaining. The history and im- 

 provement of our famous breeds of cattle is a grander 

 theme ; it deals with archaic types, ancestral herds, and 

 the efforts and expenditure of great landed proprietors. 

 The story of our pigs runs on a humbler level. The 

 peasant, and not the great proprietor, has raised the 

 modern pig to its present perfection. Its recent de- 

 velopment limits its interest to the naturalist. There 

 is a lack of individuality in the appearance of different 

 breeds of British pigs. Any stranger who visits the 

 Smithfield Cattle Show is struck with the great variety 

 of shape, colour, and size in the cattle * classes/ But 

 to appreciate the differences in pigs one must be * in the 

 fancy,' except in the case of a few breeds which retain 

 traces of colour or form due to ancient environment. 

 Thus Mr. Spencer mentions with disapproval an aquatic 

 and detrimental pig which formerly haunted the Fens 

 and the valley of the Ouse. Some of these may still be 

 found in parts of the Fens ' far removed from railways 

 or the beneficial influence of a good herd of pure-bred 

 pigs.' The ' Tarn worths ' are the offspring of what are 

 commonly believed to be the original forest pigs which 

 Gurth the swineherd fed for Cedric the Saxon. They 

 hailed originally from the * Ivanhoe ' country near 

 Sherwood Forest, whither they were sent in droves in 



