"selling my bit of a pig" - Seems like an idiom or set phrase

Question

Place and time: England, circa 1900

"I must have a pound," said the landlord, "and I've no one to drive it."

"I'll give you two," said I, over the stranger's shoulder.

"What for?"

"And I'll bring it back by midnight," I said.

"Lord!" said the landlord; "what's the hurry? I'm selling my bit of a pig. Two

pounds, and you bring it back? What's going on now?"

Seems like some old, arcaic English to which I cannot find the meaning.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

This is coming from:

http://www.classbrain.com/artmovies/uploads/the_war_of_the_worlds.pdf

Any ideas anyone?

Avangi · Answer

It seems like each of the bidders has a different idea of what he's paying for.
We have several British specialists who will readily decipher this.

In the US, to call something a bit of an X might be uncomplimentary.

Or maybe not.
It's a bit of a puzzle.
She's a bit of a dish/dog.

Anonymous · Answer

Well, I'm glad it's not just me.

I'm curious what British specialists will suggest.

Khoff · Answer

Okay, the passage is from War of the Worlds. The Narrator thinks the stranger is offering to rent a horse and cart from the landlord (although there is "no one to drive it"), and offers double the asked-for price. Then it turns out that the landlord was trying to sell a pig, not rent out a cart (and there was presumably no one to "drive" the pig to the buyer's farm). "My bit of a pig" is just a modest way of describing the pig that's for sale.

What was really confusing to me in the text was the reference to a "horse and dog cart." Wikipedia helped me figure it out -- apparently there's a type of horse-drawn cart confusingly called a "dogcart."

Anonymous · Answer

That makes perfect sense! Thank you so much as that was really bothering me.

"selling my bit of a pig" - Seems like an idiom or set phrase

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