Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/anecdotesoflearn00bosw Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). Small capital letters have been transcribed in upper case. ANECDOTES OF THE LEARNED PIG. WITH NOTES, CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY, AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM BOZZY, PIOZZI, &c. &c. _Epicuri de grege porcus._ LONDON: Printed for T. HOOKHAM, New Bond Street. M,DCC,LXXXVI. ADVERTISEMENT. The Editor is indebted to mere accident for his acquaintance with the following ſprightly performance; and, as it ſeemed to have been the Author’s intention to have written notes, from ſeveral detached papers having reference to the text, the Editor has taken the liberty to introduce them as ſuch, and add ſome trifling references by way of proof or illuſtration, which he hopes may not be deemed impertinent. _May_ 12, 1786. ANECDOTES OF THE LEARNED PIG [1]. The great and learned Pig, of which it is our hap to ſpeak, was produced in a ſty belonging to an old Tory, bookſeller, in [2] _Moorfields_. At that time _Moorfields_ was diſtinguiſhed by rails which [3] fluttered with party writings and libels of every ſort; and it is remarkable that his mother, during her pregnancy, tore down from thoſe rails, and fairly devoured one whole volume of _Filmer_ and all _Sacheverell_’s ſermons at a meal; after which ſhe was obſerved to grunt more and louder, and to lie longer in the ſun, and deeper in the mire, than it had before been her cuſtom to do. She was delivered of our Pig on the morning of the _tenth of June_. He was ſtrong and bony, but of an inelegant form, and betrayed a very uncommon roughneſs in his ſqueak; and it was ſoon after remarked by the neighbours, that his trottings after his mother were made in [4] zig-zags, and not in ſtraight lines as is uſual with other pigs. After his mother, however, he reſolutely trotted, and one morning, as ill fortune would have it, into a garden which had belonged to the great _Milton_, and was now in the poſſeſſion of one of his daughters. Here he fed voraciouſly upon _white roſes_, whilſt his lady mother was buſily employed in rooting up all the _red ones_. He was in this place ſeized by the owner, and ſo ſeverely whipped, that he thought no other than that ſhe was whipping him to death in preparation for a luxurious meal. Of this whipping he retained through life the higheſt reſentment, and bore ever after the moſt inveterate hatred of the whole _Miltonic line_. On the fifth of November following he was taken up, without any warrant, by the rabble, for the uſes of a _Whig feaſt_, and was very near being _roaſted_ at the ſame fire with the _Pope_, the _Devil_, and the _Pretender_; but this being diſcovered to be ſomething _meaſly_, he was turned looſe to be cured, as they deridingly ſaid, by the [5] _royal touch_.