Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/420

 Pigs. carry this Thomas Freborne and his pig opened thorow the streets unto the Old Bailey, unto Sir Roger Chomley : for the Bishop said he had nothing to do to punish him, for that belonged unto the civil magis trates: and so was Freborne carried with the pig before him to Sir Roger Chomleys house in the Old Bailey, and he being not at home at that time, Freborne was brought likewise back again unto the Bishop's place with the pig, and there lay in the Porters Lodge until it was nine of the clock at night. Then the Bishop sent him unto the Counter in the Poultery by the sumner and other of his servants. The next day being Saturday, he was brought before the Mayor of London and his brethren unto the Guild Hall: but before his coming they had the pig delivered unto them by the Bishops officer. Then the Mayor and the bench laid unto his charge (as they were informed from the Bishop) that he had eaten powdered beef and calves heads in his house the same Lent, but no man was able to come, in that would justify it, neither could any thing be found save only the pig, which (as is before said) was for the preservation of his wife's life and that she went withal. Notwithstand ing the Mayor said that Monday next fol lowing he should stand on the Pillory in Cheapside with the one half of the pig on one shoulder and the other half on the other. Then spake the wife of the said Freborne unto the Mayor and the bench, desiring that she might stand there and not he, for it was long of her and not of him. After this they took a Satten-list and tied it fast about the pig's neck and made Freborne to carry it hanging on his shoulder until he came unto the Counter of the Poultery from whence he came. After this was done the wife of this pris oner took with her an honest woman, the wife of one Michael Lobley, which was well

379

acquainted with divers in Lord Cromwell's house, unto whom the said woman resorted for some help for this prisoner, desiring them to speak unto their Lord and Master for his deliverance out of trouble. . . . This they did. . . and the Lord Cromwell, upon their request, sent for the Lord Mayor of London : but what was said to him is un known. Now to show further what became of this pig whereof we have spoken so much, it was carried into Fin'sbury Field by the Bishop of London's sumner, at his master's commandment, and there buried. The Mon day following. . .the Mayor of London with the residue of his brethren, being at Guild Hall, sent for the prisoner aforesaid, and demanded sureties of him for his forthcom ing, whatsoever hereafter should or might be laid tfnto his charge : but for lack of such sureties as they required, upon his own bond, which was a recognisance of twenty pounds, he was delivered out of their hands. But shortly after he was delivered out of this his trouble, Mr. Garter, of whom we have spoken before, being his landlord, warned him out of his house, so that in four years after he could not get another, but was constrained to be within other good folks, to his great hindrance and undoing." The pig that did most for the United States of America lived on the Pacific coast. His greed nearly caused war between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, and gave the Emperor William of Germany an opportunity of learning Amer ican geography, after he had in the early seventies, finished his study of the map of France. This pig whose name, age and size are all unrecorded by the muse of his tory, lived in 1859, on the Island of San Juan, a beautiful islet lying sheltered from the waves of the Pacific, in the channel be tween the main shore of British Columbia