THE WILD BOAR. 95 



but they have tainted all the breed of the pigges of 

 the neighbouring partes, which are of their colour; a 

 kind of soot colour."* This was written in 1689. 

 Evelyn, in a note to this passage, observes : " There 

 -were Wild Boars in a forest in Essex formerly. I 

 sent a Portugal boar and sow to Wotton in Surrey, 

 which greatly increased ; but they digged the earth 

 so up, and did such spoyle, that the country 

 would not endure it : but they made incomparable 

 bacon." 



At a later period, as recorded by Gilbert White, 

 General Howe turned out some German Wild Boars 

 in the forests of Wolmer and Alice Holt, of which 

 he had a grant from the Crown ; but, as White 

 says, " the country rose upon them and destroyed 

 them."t 



The late Earl of Fife, who tried many experiments 

 in introducing different animals into the Forest of 

 Marr, turned out some Wild Boars by the advice 

 of the Margrave of Anspach, who was at Marr 

 Lodge on a visit ; but the experiment in this case 

 did not answer, for want of acorns, their principal 

 food.t 



Forty years ago, Mr. Drax, of Charborough Park, 

 Dorsetshire, made a similar experiment. Two pairs, 

 one from Russia the other from France, were originally 

 turned out in the woods at Charboro', and after remain- 

 ing there several years they, or their descendants, 



* Aubrey, "Nat. Hist. Wilts," p. 59. 



t " Nat. Hist, of Selborne," Letter ix. to Pennant. 



X Scrope's " Art of Deer Stalking," p. 406. 



