394 PRÆTERITA-II

frequently in my heraldic character of “Little Pig”; or, royally plural, “Little Pigs,” especially when these letters took the tone of confessions, as for instance, from Keswick, in 1867:-

“When little pigs have muffins hot,

And take three quarters for their lot,

Then, little pigs-had better not.”

And again, on the occasion of over-lunching myself before ascending Red Pike, in the same year:-

“As readers, for their minds’ relief,

Will sometimes double down a leaf,

Or rather, as good sailors reef

Their sails, or jugglers, past belief

Will con-involve a handkerchief-

If little pigs, when time is brief

Will, that way, double up their beef,

Then-little pigs will come to grief.”

And here is what may, it seems to me, gracefully conclude this present chapter, as a pretty and pathetic Pigwiggian chaunt, from Abbeville, in 1858:-

“If little pigs,-when evening dapples,

With fading clouds, her autumn sky,-

Set out in search of Norman Chapels,

And find, instead, where cliffs are high,

Half way from Amiens to Etaples,

A castle, full of pears and apples,

On donjon floors laid out to dry;

-Green jargonelles, and apples tenney,¹-

And find their price is five a penny,

If little pigs, then, buy too many,

Spare to those little pigs a sigh.”

¹ [From the French tenné, an heraldic term denoting a tincture of orange-brown.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]