The Tale of Pigling Bland
Two pigs at Hill Top Farm — Alexander and Pigling Bland — are sold because food is short and their appetites are "fearful, five meals a day and not satisfied." On the way to market, Pigling Bland takes a wrong turn and ends up trapped in a mysterious farmhouse with the unsettling Mr. Piperson. There he meets Pig-wig, a small black pig who is also stuck. Together, they slip out, cross Colwith Bridge, and dance away over the hills and far away.
The two pigs were real. Beatrix had named them Alexander and Pigling Bland on her own farm. The black girl-pig — Pig-wig — was real too, and bought against the farm manager's wishes. When Beatrix saw a tiny black piglet at Farmer Townley's, she insisted on taking her home. Cannon, who ran the farm, "was shocked to see the black girl-pig, and refused to have it anywhere near the others." Beatrix raised her by hand, in a basket beside her bed, with a feeding bottle. She kept her as a pet, and put her in the book.
In one of the pen-and-ink drawings, Beatrix herself appears — handing some papers to Alexander. The story ends with Pigling Bland and Pig-wig escaping into Little Langdale, "over the hills and far away."
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Particulars
- Trade edition
- 1913, Frederick Warne & Co.
- Setting
- Hill Top Farm, Colwith Bridge, Little Langdale
- Dedication
- "For Cecily and Charlie. A Tale of the Christmas Pig" (Farmer Townley's children)
- Format
- "The Peter Rabbit Books, Series II, New Style" — same series as Mr. Tod
- Real models
- Alexander, Pigling Bland, and Pig-wig were all Beatrix's own pigs at Hill Top
Curiosities
- ❦Pig-wig was real. Beatrix saw a tiny black piglet at Farmer Townley's and insisted on buying her, against the farmer's protests. Cannon — Beatrix's farm manager — refused to have the unpedigreed pig near the others. Beatrix put her in a basket by her bed and raised her on a bottle.
- ❦Beatrix sketched her pigs from inside the sty: "I have done a little sketching when it does not rain, and I spent a very wet hour inside the pig sty drawing the pig. It tries to nibble my boots, which is interrupting."
- ❦Lancashire farmers used the term girl-pig for sows. Beatrix kept an old advice-note from a neighbour, Farmer Scales, that read: "Your pigs are ready, but there is no Girl pigs."
- ❦In the manuscript margin, Beatrix scribbled what Mr. Piperson would really say in dialect: "By gum, hires anothur!" The published version cleans it up.
- ❦Beatrix put herself in the book — appearing in one pen-and-ink drawing handing some papers over to Alexander.
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