From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Anecdotal account of a test-drive incident involving a collision with a pig in a French village.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0359 | |
| Date | 28th October 1941 guessed | |
| - 4 - considerable. Until about 1923, the livestock of every farm adjacent to the road made a practice of using this level stretch of ground for recreation. To cover a test-run of 500 miles without some sort of fatality, was the exception rather than the rule. The roads were, of course, un-tarred in most cases and, in consequence, in wet weather it was not always possible to stop very hurriedly. On one occasion, when I was driving one of these test-cars, and we had slowed down to about 40 miles per hour, to go through a village, a pig of unusually large proportions attempted to cross the road. It was obviously a question of either hitting a pig or a poplar-tree and we, therefore, chose the pig - striking it very close to the tail with the dumbiron. Almost immediately, the car was surrounded by a crowd of gesticulating villagers, who appeared to spring from nowhere, and a somewhat heated argument ensued. Any conversation which I have in French is likely to cause misunderstanding, and this particular instance was no exception to the rule, since I kept emphasising that "le cochon" was "mort", and a shrivelled old lady - who appeared to the owner of the pig - would keep referring to it as "une truie". We rapidly came to an impasse, which was only surmounted when, by mutual consent, we adjourned to the domicile of the pig-keeper where I was shown ten small pigs! No pains were spared to describe the probable death-agonies of the infants, robbed of maternal care. However, the clouds lifted somewhat when we got back to the car and found "mother" uneasily cantering down the road. The next day, I received a bill - a copy of which is printed below - for 1000 frs. - 500 frs. for the mother, and 50 frs. for each "petit porcelet" - which was so obviously a "try-on" that I retaliated by another bill for 1000 frs. for "damage done to the car". Before rendering this, I took the precaution of having a very considerable party | ||