‘Bladud, eldest Son of Lud-Hudibras (then King of Britain and eighth from Brute), having spent eleven years at Athens in the Study of the Liberal Arts and Sciences... came home a Leper... and for that reason shut up, that he might not infect others. He, impatient of his confinement, chose rather a mean Liberty than a Royal Restraint, and contrived his Escape in Disguse, and went very remote from his Father’s Court, and into an untravell’d part of the Country... He was entertain’d in Service at Swainswicke (a small Village, two Miles from this City (Bath). His Business... was to take Care of the Pigs, which he was to drive from place to place, for their Advantage in Feeding upon Beechmasts, Acorns, and Haws... He thus driving his Swine from place to place, observ’d some of the Herd, in very
