Note 90b — NOTES ON PARISHES ROUND HORNCASTLE. (continued 3)

Of this Blagge the following anecdote is preserved. He was a favourite with Henry VIII., who called him familiarly his “little pig.” A retrograde religious movement occurring towards the end of this reign, Blagge, with others, was imprisoned as an offender against the law of the Six Articles (1539) against Popish practices. By Henry’s interposition he was released and restored to his office. On his first re-appearance at Court, the King said to him:—“So you have got back again my little pig,” to which Blagge replied, “Yes, and but for your Majesty’s clemency, I should have been roast pig before now.”