By the beginning of the 16th Century hogs had become much more numerous. In towns the hog owners kept their hogs in sties and tended to their stock themselves. In some towns it was the custom to clean out the sties once a week on Saturdays on account of the hogs were allowed to run about the streets from noon ill evening. At times they must have been a bit of a nuisance, for King Henry VIII ordered all the inhabitants of Wimbledon to ring and yoke their hogs before the feast of St. Martin under penalty of 12 pence per hog, a stiff fine in those days.