The Every-day Book and Table Book, v. 1 (of 3): or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the AlmanacHone, William
History
The Every-day Book and Table Book, v. 1 (of 3): or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac
Hone, William
Days; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
“I remember,” says Stow, “that the officers charged with the oversight
of the markets in this city did divers times take from the market
people, pigs starved, or otherwise unwholesome for man’s sustenance;
these they did slit in the ear. One of the proctors for St. Anthony’s
(Hospital) tied a bell about the neck, (of one of them,) and let it feed
on the dunghills: no man would hurt or take it up; but if any gave to
them bread, or other feeding, such they (the pigs) would know, watch
for, and daily follow, whining till they had somewhat given them:
whereupon was raised a proverb, ‘_Such an one will follow such an one,
and whine as it were_ (like) _an Anthony pig_.’” If such a pig grew to
be fat, and came to good liking, (as oftentimes they did,) then the
proctor would take him up to the use of the hospital.
St. Anthony’s school in London, now gone to decay, was anciently
celebrated for the proficiency of its pupils. Stow relates, that, in his
youth, he annually saw, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, the scholars of
the different grammar-schools assembled in the churchyard of St.
Bartholomew, Smithfield, and then St. Anthony’s scholars commonly were
the best, and carried the prizes; and that when the boys of St. Paul’s
school met with those of St. Anthony’s, “they would call them St.
Anthony’s pigs, and they again would call the others pigeons of Paul’s;
because many pigeons were bred in Paul’s church, and St. Anthony was
always figured with a pig following him.”
The seal of St. Anthony’s Hospital in London was about the size of a
half-crown; it represented the saint preaching to a numerous
congregation, with his pig beneath him. The Rev. Mr. Orton, rector of
Raseby in Leicestershire, was supposed to have been its possessor by the
late Mr. S. Ayscough, who adds (in the Gent. Mag.) that the hospital of
St. Anthony had a grant of all the stray pigs which were not owned. He
presumes that, from thence, originated the emblem of the saint’s pig. In
this he seems to have been mistaken; it clearly did not originate in
England. Patrick’s solution of it is more probable, and very likely to
be correct.
St. Anthony is always represented by the old painters with a pig by his
side. He is so accompanied in the wood-cut to his life in the Golden
Legend. There are many prints of him, by early masters, in this way.
Rubens painted a fine picture of the Death of St. Anthony, with his pig,
or rather a large bacon hog, lying under the saint’s bed: there is a
good engraving from this picture by Clouwet.
* * * * *
In the British Museum there is a MS. with a remarkable anecdote that
would form an appendix to St. Anthony’s day. The names of the parties
are forgotten; but the particulars, recollected from accidental perusal,
are these:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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