NATURAL. HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
341 
Whitmoor House, Guildford. Lady Susan — for that is the name 
of the tame wild boar — is thus described by her kind master : — 
"My sow — of whose fighting stray pigs, &c., I sent you an 
account some time back — originally came from Syria, and was 
given to me by H.H. the Maharajah Duleep Singh about six 
years ago. She is a remarkably fine healthy animal, and her 
instinct and affection can only be equalled by the dog. She 
follows me almost daily in my Avalks like a dog, to the great 
astonishment of strangers. Of course I only take her out before 
the crops are up, and too low to injure, during the spring and 
summer months. 
" I always have her belled to hear when she is in the woods, 
&c. ; and the bell, which is a good sheep's bell, is fastened round 
her neck with a strap and a buckle. 
" Her leaping powers are extraordinary either over ' water ' or 
' timber,' indeed only a few weeks since she cleared some palings 
(between which she had been purposely placed to secure her for 
a time) three feet ten inches in height. Knowing my pig's 
excellent temper, even when she has young pigs, and when 
domestic sows are always most savage, I was once guilty of a 
practical joke. I got a blacksmith who was quite ignorant of 
even the existence of my pig, to 'come and ring a pig.' The stye 
being under a building he had to enter it at a low door, which 
was some distance from the sow's yard, where she was feeding. 
He entered, shutting the door to keep the pig in, and thinking 
his subject was an ordinary one and that assistants were 
following him to hold the cord, &c. He had not been gone 
a minute, before I heard the greatest ' rum-ti-tum ' at the door, 
and cries of, ' For goodness' sake, sir, let me out ! let me out ! 
I never saw such a beast in my life!' and out came the poor 
blacksmith, pale with fright, but all the consolation he got was 
a jolly good laugh at his own expense. From the many places 
called after the wild boar, as AVild Boar Clougli in Cheshire, 
Branspeth and Brandon in the county of Durham, &c., it must 
have been very common in England some two or three hundred 
years back. Perhaps I may be forgiven if I explain the con- 
nection that Branspeth has with tbe subject : Bran in the north 
of England means a boar, and no doubt the 'peth' is a cor- 
ruption of path, hence Branspeth. Brandon was originally 
Branden, or the den or the lair of the boar, and, curiously enough, 
tradition says they were very plentiful in the neighbourhood. 
Clough signifies a wood along the steep sides of two hills close 
to each other. Tbe wild boar has long been extinct in the British 
Islands, but it is common in France, Germany, Italy, the islands of 
the Mediterranean, Albania, Syria, the north of Africa, and India, 
