Of Fine Character: Angus Watson on porcine royalty
From The Daily Telegraph
Uploaded January 2006

Berkshire pigs, Royal Berkshire residents will be unsurprised to hear, are very posh. They have the oldest lineage of any British pedigree pig and are highly exclusive, with fewer than 300 in the country, putting them in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust's "vulnerable" category.

Despite low numbers, their fine character born of good breeding has ensured a glittering literary career. Both the love interest Pig Wig and the eponymous hero of Beatrix Potter's Pigling Bland are Berkshires, as is the Empress of Standings, star of many PG Wbdehouse books.

Pigling Bland is "a sedate ittle pig", while Pig Wig is "a perfectly lovely little black Berkshire pig" who deports icrself with a charming mix f pert confidence and feminine vulnerability. The Empress of Blandings is held in such high esteem that, when she bites Huxley Winkworth's finger, the vet is called in case the Empress has caught anything.

Fictional Berkshires' characters are based on fact. "They are very confident pigs," says Viki Mills of Zeal Monachorum, Devon, who keeps six Berkshires. "They are the best, really, very high on personality in an extremely friendly, non-aggressive way. They're good mothers, too, being docile and producing a lot of milk." They are also hardy, happy to live in or outdoors.

Their confidence stems from appearance, as well as breeding. A Berkshire's sleek black coat is elegantly complemented by six white points (on each foot, snout and tail), the ensemble topped by two proudly pointy ears.

They are good on the inside, too. They grow slowly and are particularly fat, so produce excellent meat. In Japan, Berkshire meat, known as kurobuta, is extortionately expensive. Good meat's popularity is growing exponentially in Britain at the moment, so Berkshires, as well as making a fine-looking and well-behaved addition to your creature complement, might also make you a bob or two.