THE N1!W FOBSIST. B9 



someffching after ihe manner of the gualehoa; but their noose 

 and their mode of using it are very chimsy and bungling 

 compared with the American lasso." * 



The" forest borderers have a right to feed their hogs in 

 the forest during the pannage month, which coromences 

 about the end of September, and lasts six weeks.t The 

 swineherd, who generally takes charge of a drove of five 

 or six hundred hogs at once, by feeding them in the first 

 instance to the sound of a born, can always collect them 

 afterwards and prevent their straying by means of the 

 same rude music. Droves of these most inharmonious 

 animals are most frequently encountered in Bolderwood 

 Walk, on account of the profusion of its beech-mast 



Besides those ' seasonal' hogs, there are wild hogs. 

 The true New Forest breed of hogs may be said to be 

 peculiar, and not known, at least generally, even in the 

 adjoining parts of the southern counties. The usual 

 account of these peculiar hogs, which are found only in the 

 uninhtibited and thickly-wooded districts of the forest, is, 

 that they are a ' cross' from the wild boar of Germany, 

 imported into this forest by Charles !.{ Their colour is 

 generally dark brindled, and sometimes entirely black. 

 Their ears are short, firm, and erect ; and when they are 

 excited, there is a fiery glance or glare in the eye. They 

 are social animals, and are generaUy seen in small herds, 

 led on by one patriarchal male. In their pereginations of 

 the forest they do little mischief, and appear to fear as 

 little. Their number is now much more scanty than it 

 once was. 



The following graphic account of the swine-herds of the 

 New Forest is given by the Rev. Mr Gilpin, who spent 

 the latter part of his life ia the town of Boldre, in the 

 New Forest, where he died in 1804 at the age of four- 



<• Mftrtin's, BJlptoij! of the, Hoiae. 



t The right of (attenine hogs ini this and the other royal (orests Is very ancient, cer> 

 tainly, anterior to i;he tuneot'theconqiiest, buthowilong anterior we hareinotttie 

 means of ascertaining. The borderers pay a trifle to the steward's court at Lyndhurst. 



t The king's experiment of restoring the hunting 4>f>the noble game^be wd l^~~" 

 wag deteaMby the ware which broke out between bim and the people.j 



