Boar Hunting

a favorite sport in the Middle Ages. Royalty itself did not scorn to take the field with horn and horse, boarspear and boarhound, to hunt the wild boar. Several species of wild swine range the forests of the Old World, but the wild boar of the hunt is a large, strong, swift, courageous, easily provoked animal with dangerous tusks. It has a grayish black, woolly coat, interspersed with long hairs which increase on the back of the neck and shoulders into a bristling mane, giving the animal a ferocious aspect. In Quentin Durward, Sir Walter Scott, it may be recalled, describes William de la Marck as "the Wild Boar of Ardennes." Quentin himself won the favor of the French Louis by rescuing him from the tusks of a boar and then keeping his own part in the affair to himself. A few specimens of the wild boar still linger in North Africa, Asia Minor, and in the forests of large landed proprietors in eastern Europe where it is still hunted. The present czar of Russia takes an interest in the sport.

The boar's head was the sign of a tavern in Eastcheap, London, well known to readers of Shakespeare. It is the well known heraldic emblem of various old families. The boar's head at table, and boar's head carols were a time honored part of English Christmas festivities.