CHAPTER VI.
SCOTLAND.
There can be little doubt but that the aboriginal breed of Highland swine are, like those found in the Hebrides, descended from the wild boar, for until within the last half-century, they retained much of the form, and many of the habits and characteristics, of the wild breed. They also "are small, shaggy, bristled, and wild; wandering about the hills, grazing and seeking out roots and other favorite food, and requiring no care or sustenance at the hand of man, yet keeping in condition, and making excellent pork or bacon. The latter end of the autumn is the best time to kill them, as they are then in good flesh.
Those which have been brought into the low country and artificially fed, have fattened to a considerable size, and yielded fine-grained, firm, and well-flavored meat.
Formerly immense herds of these small swine were reared in the Highlands of Scotland, and brought down to the Lowland markets for sale; the practice of keeping these animals gradually declined some fifty or sixty years ago, but has latterly been revived since the cultivation of the potato has become more extensive. There cannot, however, be a doubt that a great number of this breed of pigs might be advantageously fattened upon every Highland farm where the land and crop is inclosed, both on account of the little artificial food they require, and the roots and various substances they will consume which no other kind of stock would touch. But although the practice of keeping swine in the Highlands and north of Scotland is of very ancient date, there are no records which speak of their existence in the more southern parts of Caledonia; indeed, if we may give credence to several anecdotes related by Mr. Henderson, they were absolutely unknown animals in several parts. Treatise on Breeding Swine.
It would seem that, some hundred and twenty years since, a person residing in the parish of Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, received a present of a young pig, which is said to be the first which had ever appeared in that part of the country. This pig strayed from his new home one day into the adjoining parish of Carlavroc, and wandering along the seaside came upon a woman who was keeping cattle. She screamed at the sight of the "strange beast," and ran off to her village, and the pig after her. There she declared she had seen "the
