The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-16
Some Historic Pigs.

pigs from a practical that Is, a sage and onion point of view. They are considered essentially commonplace, and suggestive of various uncompli- mentary comparisons, But there are some who in different ways have been distinguished by what may perhaps be not unfitly termed the romance of history From a literary point of view no pig equals the one which was the motif of that immortal essay of Charles Lambs, which Is classic with all the Engllsh-speaking world, The Essay on Roast Pig was really the result of an anonymous present consisting of a sucking pig, which was forwarded to Charles Lamb by some one, but credi- ted by him to Coleridge, and was the occasion of that inimitable and charac- teristic letter in which he avowed that while he would share any other edible present with his friends, he drew the line at sucking pig; and which letter was the kernel, as it were, of the sub sequent and favorite essay.
 But there is an instance of pig which has indirectly achieved historic fame, which is as little known to the great majority of readers as that of Charles Lamb is familiar Up to the reign of Henry the Eighth, who, despite his spoliation of the monasteries and resistance to the Popes supremacy, was in all else rigid Catholic, eating flesh in Lent was punished by the pill lory From this cause a sucking pig, whose bones long mouldered under what is now Finsbury Square became historical. One Thomas Freburn lived in Paternoster Row. His wife during Lent had particular inclination for pig, and one was procured ready, for the spit. However, the butter-woman who sold 1t had doubts as to the propriety of what she had done, and carried one of the "pettitoes'' to that august digni- tary the Dean of Canterbury, who was then at dinner, and had among his guests Freburns landlord and Garter King at Arms This dignitary sent to his tenant, after the tale had been told, to inquire whether (as the sole permis- sible excuse) any of her family were ill that they ate flesh in Lent. "All well, said honest Freburn, little rocking of what he was saying and it's conse- quences, ''only my wife longs for pig" w HtIeupOIl HIS ldHtiloi u SOul ipA titN Bishop of Londons apparitor, and the pig became heinous and historic. Ere burn and the sucking pig were forth with conducted before Stocksly, the bishop. He sent them both before Judge Cholmley He was not at home. Back both were brought to the bishop, who committed them both to the Comp | ter.
 Next day Freburn, unhappy man, no | doubt bitterly re1ecting on his com plaisance as a good husband, was | brought before the Lord Mayor, who sentenced him to stand on the follow | ing Monday in the pillory with one-half l of the pig on one shoulder and one-half on the other, At last Thomas Crom- well, the kings despotic vicar general, intervened, and by his means poor Freburn got free on giving bond for | twenty pounds for his reappearance. | The bishop resolved to deal, however with the pig, and the apparitor by his orders, buried it in Finsbury Fields
 But Freburn was elected from his | house, and four years elapsed before he could get another. How he must have hated the sight of anything in the shape of pork from that day forth | Charles Lamb if aware of this histori- cal sucking pigs history, must have looked on Finsbury Square, whenever near, with peculiar interest
 | And the mention of Charles Lambs | name recalls that of another of the lit- erary immortals who had pig which must certainly be historic to the innu- merable readers who have owed hours | of delight to the author of "Waverley" ["
 Sir Walter Scott, as Carlyle somewhere mentions, was gifted with fascination l felt by all sorts of dumb creatures. who l probably recognized that manly, mod
 est, kindly nature even as humans | did his genius and worth. Among his
 many dogs whenever he set out with 1 his guests on field excursion from Ab- | botsford, was certain little black pig
 mentioned in Lockhart's life of the | great man, which had in the most per- | sistent fashion attached itself to him..
 And this little black pig was always
 prominent among the dogs, joyousy frisking and Jumping among them at
 the heels of Sir Walters pony, and only | prevented by main force (very gently
 applied be sure) from accompanying | him wherever he went. A good deal of
 interest was felt among many London
 CTS in 1726 by the mention of another pig, which, however only appealed to
 them gastronomically. Even as the
 capital was then extremely restricted, l in comparison with that with which we
 are familiar, so were the interests and enjoyments of Londoners in the early
 Georgian days. It is not wonderful therefore that much speculation was
 excited by the following advertisement in that year: "On Tuesday next, being
 Shrove Tuesday, there will be a fine
 hog barbyqu'd whole at the house of Peter Brett at the Rising Sun in Is lington Road, with other diversions. | Note.-It is the house where the OK was roasted whole at Christmas last" Of
 this style of cooking a pig, which meant roasting it whole, stuffing it with
 spices, and basting with Madeira Gin those days fashionable and plentiful | wine), Pope speaks in allusion to the gormandizer Oldfield:
 "Oldfield with more than harpy throat
 endu'd,
 Cries. Send me- o gods, whole hog
 barbacu'd" London Standard
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