242 



OLD WEST SURREY 



thing crool. I says if any one wants to punish me let 'em 

 give me a stoopin' job. It seems to turn my heart upside 

 down.' 



Among my earliest country recollections is that of a 

 tine old butcher, who used to go round slaughtering pigs. 

 Some pigs were among our garden economies, and his visits 

 were therefore periodical. Apart from the gruesome duties 

 of his trade he was a genial creature, and we children 

 generally contrived to get a little talk with him. He had 



.. r 



Hog-Form and Cutting-Up Knife 



a favourite euphemism for sticking or killing a pig ; he 

 always called it ' Puttin' a knife in.' ' Where I puts a 

 knife in I gets a pint ' was a remark that I remember. 



The hog-form, a low oak bench on short legs, played 

 an important part in the later ceremony of scraping off the 

 hair, after the newly-slaughtered animal had been scalded 

 in boiling water, and, again a few days later, when the 

 butcher returned to cut up the carcase. 



In buying pigs, or indeed any other stock or produce, 

 unless the purchase was completed at once, it was (and is) 



