15th century bench end carving of a boar with one foot on a mirror. The meaning of this carving is not known, but there is an ancient apocryphal tale of a hunter attempting to steal a tiger cub from its mother. To stop the mother tiger pursuing him, the cunning hunter drops a mirror. The mother tiger becomes distracted by her own reflection, believing her cub trapped is trapped inside the object: She stops her pursuit and waits by the mirror, and the crafty hunter is able to escape with the real cub. Perhaps this tale was also told about other wild beasts. Or, mirrors generally represent vanity and pride: perhaps there is an allegorical meaning to the statue: we will never transcend our bestial nature unless we learn to attend first to our inner beauty.