Bill Ferny

A bad neighbour

Bill Ferny lived in the last house on the south side of the Road in Bree, close under the hedge, and had the worst name in the village. He was a swarthy, sneering man with a squint, and in the autumn of 3018 he was seen much in the company of a squint-eyed Southerner who had come up the Greenway among the strangers who were then drifting into the Bree-land. Aragorn knew him for a spy who would sell anything to anyone, and on the night of 29 September Ferny and his companion watched the hobbits in the common room of the Prancing Pony, saw Frodo vanish, and slipped out to report to the Black Riders. The raid on the inn that night, and the driving off of the ponies, were the result.

The pony

The next morning the only beast left for sale in Bree was Ferny's pony, a bony, ill-used animal that he sold to Barliman Butterbur for twelve silver pennies, three times its worth. He then leaned on his gate to jeer at the hobbits and their Ranger as they left, calling Aragorn Longshanks and warning them that the pony would die on the road, and Samwise threw an apple in his face. The pony, named Bill after its former master, thrived away from him and became one of the Fellowship.

The Brandywine gate

A year later Ferny had left Bree with the ruffians who had come to dominate the land in the King's absence, and he was in the service of Saruman's men in the Shire. On the night of 30 October 3019 the returning hobbits found him keeping the new gate at the Brandywine Bridge, and he refused to open it until Merry named him and ordered him off. He ran, and Bill the pony, who was with Sam, lashed out with his heels as he passed and caught him squarely. Ferny fled into the night, and nothing further is told of him.

Driven from the Brandywine Bridge gate on 30 October 3019 and kicked by Bill the pony as he fled; not heard of again.