The strange story of the Dunmow flitch

By J. W. Robertson Scott

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Title: The strange story of the Dunmow flitch

Author: J. W. Robertson-Scott

Release date: October 31, 2023 [eBook #71995]

Language: English

Original publication: Dunmow: Dunmow: D. Carter, 1909

Credits: Al Haines

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STRANGE STORY OF THE DUNMOW FLITCH ***

THE STRANGE STORY OF
THE DUNMOW FLITCH

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[Illustration: EARLIEST OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE FLITCH.]

EARLIEST OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE FLITCH.--Entries in the Chartulary
of Dunmow Priory, in the British Museum, recording the presentation
of the Baron in 1445 and 1510, now reproduced for the first time.
The top entry is the earliest surviving record of the custom. The
recipient in the first case is Richard Wright; in the second, Thomas
le Fuller.

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[Illustration: TWO BACON RECEIPTS.]

TWO BACON RECEIPTS.--The Parsleys and Reynoldses received their Bacon
in 1701, the Shakeshafts in 1751. This 1751 presentation was the
last legitimate ceremony.

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The Strange Story of
the Dunmow Flitch

J. W. ROBERTSON-SCOTT
("HOME COUNTIES")

WITH 34 ILLUSTRATIONS

Nil nisi jurantibus ("Nothing unless you are able to swear")
--_Motto of a former Dunmow Lord of the Manor_

Two Shillings

DUNMOW: D. CARTER

TO
H. W.
W. H.

CONTENTS

Twas thought a sumptuous treat
On Birthdays, Festivals, or Days of State,
A salt dry Flitch of Bacon to prepare.
--Congreve.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

A Narrative of Nine Hundred Years

CHAPTER II

The Priory and the Rhymester

CHAPTER III

A Yeoman, a Husbandman and Thomas le Fuller

CHAPTER IV

The Vanished Cloisters

CHAPTER V

A Tale of Tyranny and War

CHAPTER VI

The Jury of Spinsters

CHAPTER VII

--And Bachelors

CHAPTER VIII

The Bacon Refused

CHAPTER IX

Enter The Novelist

CHAPTER X

The Winners of the Bacon

CHAPTER XI

The Scene at the Modern Ceremony

CHAPTER XII

Another Flitch Custom

CHAPTER XIII

The Bacon Over Sea

APPENDIX

The Last Prior and the "Fair Matilda"

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[Illustration: LAST LEGITIMATE PRESENTATION OF THE BACON.]

LAST LEGITIMATE PRESENTATION OF THE BACON.--This record of the
Shakeshaft ceremony is from an old print, "The Manner of Claiming the
Bacon," etc., published by Bowles and appearing in _Hone's Everyday
Book_. Note the realistic "sharp-pointed stones"; also that the
headgear of the Shakeshafts agrees with that represented in
Ogbourne's picture.

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[Illustration: PROCESSION AT THE LAST LEGITIMATE PRESENTATION OF THE
BACON.]

PROCESSION AT THE LAST LEGITIMATE PRESENTATION OF THE BACON.--This
Hogarthian record of the Shakeshafts carried in procession with their
Bacon is from a painting by David Ogbourne, a local artist who
witnessed the ceremony. Local personages are represented in the
crowd. The ladies in front of the laden basket are said to be
members of the Strutt family. The man mopping his head is Pownall,
"the fat butcher of Stebbing."

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INTRODUCTION

Although, as in duty bound, a member of his county Archæological
Society, no claim to what may be dignified by antiquarian research is
made by the Author of this modest publication.

If he is entitled to any credit at all, it can be merely in respect
of the fact that (in addition to making the best use of the
historical stores and constant kindness of Mr. Hastings Worrin), he
has regarded it as a kind of minor act of local patriotism to try to
gather together and set forth, in as simple and attractive a fashion
as possible, such data as, with a little trouble, may be collected
concerning a Custom all the surviving records of which are of
interest and importance to those who live in Great or Little Dunmow
or their vicinity.

The subject has, however, a wider appeal. It is so familiar that
throughout the land there can be few persons who have never heard of
the Dunmow Flitch. It is so old as to be enshrined, for as long as
English Literature shall endure, in Chaucer and Langland.

It is proper to mention, perhaps, that most of the subjects
illustrated have not before been photographed for publication.

For corrections or for any light on difficulties still confronting
the historian of the Flitch, the Author will be greatly obliged.

In order to save labour to other students of the subject, he may
perhaps mention that he has searched the following MSS. at the
British Museum: "Registrum Cartarum Prioratus de Dunmawe," "Exscripta
è Chronico de Dunmow," "Collectanea ex Chronico de Dunmowe,"
"Excerpta ex Chronico de Parva Dunmowe," "Memorandum de Pernis, a
Prioratu de Dunmowe," the household accounts of the last Prior of
Dunmow, and "Transcripta ex Libro Rubeo in Scarrario," and has
glanced through certain Court Rolls. One list of presentations of
the Bacon (which appears in Leland) is described in the catalogue at
the British Museum as "perhaps a fragment of some larger work on the
subject." Does it still exist?

GREAT CANFIELD, DUNMOW. _Christmas_, 1909.

CHAPTER I

A Narrative of Nine Hundred Years

Everybody knows that delightful Shakespearean scene in which Sir John
Falstaff robs the travellers at Gadshill. But some readers of the
play must have been puzzled a little by the sorry Knight's
ejaculation--

"On, bacons, on!"

From the Conquest, however, it had been common to call the multitude
hogs. To this practice, it has been declared, we owe the phrase "to
save one's bacon." Is not bacon the back and sides of the hog--the
part, therefore, on which a blow would generally fall? And is not
"to save one's bacon," obviously, to escape a blow?

But it is possible that "to save one's bacon" may have had, in part
at any rate, another origin. In "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" in the
_Canterbury Tales_, which were given to the world as long ago as the
fourteenth century, Chaucer's free-spoken dame says--

The bacon wae not fet for hem, I trow,
That som men have in Essex at Donmow.

May not this conceivably be the Bacon of the popular saying?

The curious Dunmow Custom, by which a Flitch of Bacon has been given
to married folk who have sworn that, for a year and a day, they have
neither had differences nor wished themselves unwed, is certainly
very old.

It may, indeed, have come over with the Conqueror. More than one
book of antiquities avers that "at the abbey of Saint Melaine near
Rennes"--the old capital of Brittany--there had been hanging, for
more than six centuries, a side of Bacon "still quite fresh," which
had been set apart for the first pair who "for a year and a day had
lived without dispute and grumbling" and without repenting of their
marriage.

To the Dunmow Custom we have a reference not only in old Chaucer, but
in that great song of England, The Vision of William concerning Piers
the Plowman, written under the shadow of the Black Death. Says the
good Langland--

Many a couple since the Pestilence
Have plighted them together;
The fruit that they bring forth
Is foul words
In jealousy without happiness,
And quarrelling in bed;
They have no children but strife,
And slapping between them,
And though they go to Dunmow
(Unless the Devil help!)
To follow after the Flitch
They never after obtain it;
And unless they both are perjured,
They lose the bacon.[*]

[*] The last four lines appear as follows in the "C-text" of
Professor Skeat's monumental two volume edition of the poem--

Thauh thei don hem to Donemowe . bote the deuel hem helpe
To folwen for the flicche . feccheth thei hit neuere;
Bote thei bothe be for-swore . that bacon thei tyne.

Then in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, which dates back to the fifteenth
century, another poet, discoursing in relation to the Seventh
Commandment, laments that he can

fynd no man that will enquere
The parfyte wais unto Dunmow;
For they repent them within a year,
And many within a week and souner men trow.

Yet another century later one Howell says choicely--

Do not fetch your wife from Dunmow
For so you may bring home two sides of a sow!

In fact, up and down our literature there are plenty of references to
the Dunmow Flitch.

CHAPTER II

The Priory and the Rhymester

The gravest historians have given accounts of the beginnings of the
Dunmow Custom. There is Dugdale, for instance, who was born in 1686.
He writes in his _Monasticon_--

Robert Fitzwalter, who lived long beloved by King Henry, the son of
King John (as also of all the realm), betook himself in his latter
days to prayer and deeds of charity, and great and bountiful alms to
the poor, kept great hospitality, and re-edified the decayed Priory
of Dunmow, which Juga, a most devout and religious woman, had
builded; in which Priory arose a custom, began and instituted either
by him or some of his ancestors, which is verified by the common
saying or proverb, "that he which repents him not of his marriage,
either sleeping or waking, in a year and a day, may lawfully go to
Dunmow and fetch a Gammon of Bacon." It is certain that such a
custom there was, and that the Bacon was delivered with such
solemnity and triumph as they of the Priory and Town could
make--continuing till the dissolution of that house. The party or
pilgrim took the Oath before the Prior of the Convent, and the Oath
was administered with long process and much solemn singing and
chanting.

But how did the Custom actually come about? Harrison Ainsworth has
explained convincingly in his rhyme, _The Custom of Dunmow_--

"What seek you here, my children dear?
Why kneel ye down thus lowly
Upon the stones, beneath the porch
Of this our Convent holy?"
The Prior old the pair bespoke
In faltering speech, and slowly.

Their modest garb would seem proclaim
The pair of low degree,
But though in cloth of frieze arrayed,
A stately youth was he;
While she, who knelt down by his side,
Was beautiful to see.

"A Twelvemonth and a Day have fled
Since first we were united;
And from that hour," the young man said,
"No change our hopes has blighted.
Fond faith with fonder faith we've paid.
And love with love requited.

"True to each other have we been;
No dearer object seeing,
Than each has in the other found;
In everything agreeing.
And every look, and word, and deed
That breed dissension fleeing.

"All this we swear, and take in proof
Our Lady of Dunmow!*
For She, who sits with saints above,
Well knows that it is so.
Attest our Vow, thou reverend man,
And bless us ere we go!"

* The accent in Dunmow is on the first syllable, not as placed by
Ainsworth and other rhymers.

The Prior old stretch'd forth his hands;
"Heaven prosper ye!" quoth he;
"O'er such as ye, right gladly we
Say '_Benedicite!_'"
On this, the kneeling pair uprose--
Uprose full joyfully.

Just then, pass'd by the Convent cook--
And moved the young man's glee;
On his broad back a mighty Flitch
Of Bacon brown bore he.
So heavy was the load, I wis,
It scarce mote carried be.

"Take ye that Flitch," the Prior cried,
"Take it, fond pair, and go;
Fidelity, like yours, deserves
The boon I now bestow.
Go, feast your friends, and think upon
The Convent of Dunmow."

"Good Prior," then the youth replied,
"Thy gift to us is dear,
Not for its worth, but that it shows
Thou deem'st our love sincere,
And in return broad lands I give--
Broad lands thy Convent near;
Which shall to thee and thine produce
A Thousand Marks a year!

"But this Condition I annex,
Or else the Grant's forsaken;
That whensoe'er a pair shall come,
And take the Oath we've taken,
They shall from thee and thine receive
A goodly Flitch of Bacon.

"And thus from out a simple chance
A usage good shall grow;
And our example of true love
Be held up evermo:
While all who win the prize shall bless
The Custom of Dunmow."

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[Illustration: STOTHARD'S PICTURE, "THE PROCESSION OF THE FLITCH OF
BACON."]

STOTHARD'S PICTURE, "THE PROCESSION OF THE FLITCH OF BACON."--It was
published in 1833 and was dedicated to Samuel Rogers, the poet.

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[Illustration: STOTHARD'S PICTURE ADAPTED, WITH QUEEN VICTORIA AND
PRINCE ALBERT AS LEADING ACTORS.]

STOTHARD'S PICTURE ADAPTED, WITH QUEEN VICTORIA AND PRINCE ALBERT AS
LEADING ACTORS.--Among the figures are Lord Brougham, Lord
Palmerston, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John
Russell, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dukes of Sussex and
Cambridge. Date of print, 1841.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"Who art thou, son?" the Prior cried,
His tones with wonder falter--
"Thou should'st not jest with reverend men,
Nor with their feelings palter."
"I jest not, Prior, for know in me
Sir Reginald Fitzwalter.

"I now throw off my humble garb,
As I what I am, contest;
The wealthiest I of wealthy men,
Since with this treasure blest."
And as he spoke, Fitzwalter clasp'd
His lady to his breast.

"In peasant guise my love I won,
Nor knew she whom she wedded;
In peasant cot our truth we tried,
And no disunion dreaded.
Twelve months' assurance proves our faith
On firmest base is steadied."

Joy reigned within those Convent walls
When the glad news was known;
Joy reigned within Fitzwalter's halls
When there his bride was shown.
No lady in the land such sweet
Simplicity could own;
A natural grace had she, that all
Art's graces far outshone:
Beauty and worth for want of birth
Abundantly atone.

L'ENVOY

What need of more? That Loving Pair
Lived long and truly so;
Nor ever disunited were;--
For one death laid them low!
And hence arose that Custom old--
The Custom of Dunmow.

Of this Fitzwalter we shall hear later on.

CHAPTER III

A Yeoman, a Husbandman and Thomas le Fuller

Now all may have fallen out exactly as Harrison Ainsworth tells us;
but then, again, as Uncle Remus says, "it moughtn't."

"Among the jocular tenures of England," writes Grose--he was the
antiquary for whom Burns wrote "Tam o' Shanter"--"none has been more
talked about than the Bacon of Dunmow." (A peppercorn rent, which
still appears in legal documents, is a kind of "jocular tenure.") In
the theory of a jocular tenure we have probably the true origin of
the Flitch custom.

Morant, the historian of Essex, seems to think that this was the
case. He writes--

The Prior and Canons were obliged to deliver the Bacon to them that
took the Oath, by virtue (as many believe) of a Founder or
Benefactor's Deed or Will, by which they held lands, rather than of
their own singular frolic and wantonness, or more probably it was
imposed by the Crown, either in Saxon or Norman times, and was a
burthen upon their estate.

It is explained that "after the Pilgrims, as the Claimants were
called, had taken the Oath, they were taken through the Town in a
Chair, on Men's Shoulders, with all the Friars, Brethren, and
Townsfolk, young and old, male and female after them, with shouts and
acclamations, and the Bacon was borne before them on poles."

The Chartulary of Dunmow Priory (_Registrum Cartarum Prioratus de
Dunmawe_), a thickish quarto, clearly written in old contracted
Latin, is still to be seen any day in the British Museum. There are
two entries in reference to the Flitch. One is dated 1445, the other
1510. The first is on page 128 and the other on the opening page.
Both are among collections of memoranda apart from the actual
Chartulary, which itself contains no reference to the Flitch. (_See_
Appendix.) Here are translations of the entries--

Memorandum: that one Richard Wright, of Badbourge, near the City of
Norwich, in the County of Norfolk, Yeoman, came and required the
Bacon of Dunmow on the 17th day of April, in the 23rd year of the
reign of King Henry VI, and according to the form of the charter, was
sworn before John Cannon, Prior of this place and the Convent, and
many other neighbours, and there was delivered to him, the said
Richard, one Flitch of Bacon.

Memorandum: that in the year of our Lord, 1510, Thomas le Fuller, of
Coggeshall, in the County of Essex, came to the Priory of Dunmow, and
on the 8th September, being Sunday, in the second year of King Henry
VIII, he was, according to the form of the Charter, sworn before John
Tylor, the Prior of the house and Convent, as also before a multitude
of neighbours, and there was delivered unto him, the said Thomas, a
Gammon of Bacon.

On a sheet pasted on the last page of a volume of MSS. consisting of
extracts from the Red Book of the Exchequer ("Transcripta ex Libro
Rubeo in Scarrario"), the foregoing entries are recorded in cramped
English, and also a third, which, as a matter of fact, is written
first--

Memorandum: that one Stephen Samuel, of Little Easton, in the County
of Essex, Husbandman, came to the Priory of Dunmow, on our Lady-day
in Lent, in the Seventh year of King Edward IV, and required a Gammon
of Bacon, and was sworn before Roger Bulcott, then Prior, and the
Convent of this place, as also before a multitude of other
neighbours, and there was delivered to him a Gammon of Bacon.

It will be seen that in two cases it was a Gammon not a Flitch of
Bacon that was awarded. (A Flitch is a side, a Gammon a leg of
Bacon.)

It is also of interest to notice that, in the cases reported, the
Bacon is given to a man, not to a husband and wife. An historian
also speaks of "the Pilgrim" and of "_his_ Bacon being borne before
_him_."

The first recorded presentation of the Bacon is dated, as will be
observed, 1445. But, in view of the allusion in Chaucer a century
before, it is plain that the custom must have existed even before his
time. The references to the custom in other early authors would also
seem to point to the fact of it having been frequently observed.
There are, however, only three gifts of the Bacon noted down in the
documents of the Priory, now in the care of the British Museum.

CHAPTER IV

The Vanished Cloisters

There is little now to be seen of the old Priory spoken of by Leland.

Approached from the hamlet, the existing Priory Church of Little
Dunmow, with its roof of staring blue slates, its factory
chimney-like bell tower and mean walling, attracts attention only by
its oddity. But when one walks up the farm land from which the south
side of the building may be viewed, one receives a different
impression. In the architecture now seen there are the

lines where beauty lingers,

the lines which tell of a splendid structure. The remains of no
common building stand in solitary domination of these quiet corn
fields.

One enters the church and is surprised, as Mr. Hartley has written,
by that

indefinable feeling which ever strikes us on our entry into a
spacious and beautiful edifice. That the building is a fragment of
what must have been a structure of extreme beauty becomes evident.
Columns of such dimensions and arches of such design were never
intended for purpose so slight as the support of the present roof;
windows of such size and elegance were made for shedding light upon a
much more spacious interior than we now find.

But when account is taken of all the stately arches and columns, and
the beautifully cut ornament thereon, now embodied in the brick
rubble and plaster which we owe to Georgian and Early Victorian
dulness and parsimony, no more of the old Priory survives for our
refreshment than the south aisle of the choir. The stones of the
structure that were hewn and raised by some "Master Henry" or "Master
Hubert the Mason," the timbers that some "Master John the Carpenter"
industriously wrought, even the marble and alabaster which crowned
the work have long been torn away. They are come upon now, in
fragments in the walls and floors and roofs of cottages and barns
which adjoin the church.

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[Illustration: SCENE AT THE MODERN CEREMONY.]

SCENE AT THE MODERN CEREMONY.--The Trial Proceeding. Judge in the
Middle. Tow pairs of claimants on either side. Counsel for the
claimants speaking; counsel for the Bacon seated. Jury of maidens
and bachelors on extreme right. Highly entertained public in front
at 1_s._ a head.

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[Illustration: PROCESSION AFTER THE MODERN CEREMONY.]

PROCESSION AFTER THE MODERN CEREMONY.--Two couples in chairs, recent
imitations of the original in the Priory Church. The Bacon is
swinging from poles behind the second couple.

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Where the monastic building once extended nothing remains but the out
of sight foundations which try the patience of the digger of land
drains. Labourers' patches of potatoes and greens range over
consecrated ground. The fishponds of the monks, to which they had
recourse "on Fridays when they fasted," grow grass or bear the burden
of a railway embankment. Tradition and propinquity, but these only,
point to venerable cottages and a farmhouse as marking the position
of the Priory's Manor house and Grange.

Of memorials of the Flitch ceremony two are shown--the oaken seat, in
which successful applicants for the Bacon were chaired, and the
stones on which they knelt.

The chair is kept within the altar rails. Two persons could no doubt
be squeezed into it. There are holes in the chair through which the
bearers' poles went.

Whether the chair belonged originally to the Prior and was actually
used when he gave away the Flitch, or was the property of one of the
Lords of the Manor, who, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries,
continued the custom, has been disputed. But there is evidence
pointing to the chair having been employed on the occasion of the
Manorial awards only. Mr. F. Roe, in his _Old Oak Furniture_, though
he attributes the chair to the thirteenth century, doubts very much
whether it can have been used from the beginning for the ritual of
the Flitch. For this reason--

The outer right-hand side of the chair is carved with wheel-like
decorations, but on the left-hand side the surface of the wood is
plain, and various mortices are visible, which show that the seat is
part of a larger structure, being, in fact, the end unit of a series
of stalls. The truth is that the chair used by merry-makers at the
ceremony of the Flitch, is actually a waif from the conventual
establishment. It is, one is bound to admit, a remarkable
coincidence that the chair and ceremony should have had their origin
in the same reign, but the fact that it is only part of some fitted
furniture, precludes the possibility of it having been designed for
the purpose for which it was used in later years.

In the accounts available of the awarding of the Flitch after the
closing of the religious houses by Henry VIII we hear of "two great
stones near the Church door" on which the applicant for the Bacon had
to kneel. Whether they are still in existence is uncertain.

What are to-day pointed out as the stones on which the Pilgrims knelt
may possibly be the bases of two of the many columns which local
vandals in want of building material have demolished. They are
certainly not "sharp," as some chroniclers describe the stones to
have been. A pair of stones like those in the Church are to be seen
in Little Dunmow village.

In Hone's _Table Book_, published about the time of the accession of
Queen Victoria, it is said that "the two great stones" were then in
the Church. But whether the writer of this statement had actually
seen them for himself does not appear. It may perhaps be mentioned
that, as the first presentations of the Bacon were made seemingly not
to wedded pairs but to husbands only, there could not be at this
early stage of the history of the Custom any need for "two" stones.
The present stones are each only about half a foot in diameter and
the right distance apart for one person to kneel on them. They could
hardly be described as "great" stones.

CHAPTER V

A Tale of Tyranny and War

Below the pavement of the Priory Church many dead sleep. Four graves
only are marked by stones. One resting-place, supposed to be that of
the Lady Juga, the foundress of the Priory, is covered by a slab of
grey marble "coffin-fashioned, with a cross flory." Over three other
tombs are mutilated alabaster effigies, once "heedlessly thrown among
heaps of bricks and rubbish."

Begun, Dugdale and Morant say, in 1104, the Priory was more than a
century a-building. Indeed, it was as late as 1501 that "five bells
were blessed in Dunmow steeple." Only thirty-four years were to pass
before the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It is doubtful if the
Priory was even then finished. In fact, in the expenses of the
Priory for 1534 are payments to two men "for making of ix foote of
the stepull." (_See_ Appendix.)

We have seen how much now remains of the scene whereon the Prior and
his dozen Augustinian monks prayed and ruled on revenues drawn from
holdings of land in four counties.

The Lady Juga was sister to one Ralph Baynard who came over from
Normandy with William. Among the twenty-five Essex lordships which
his sovereign gave him were those of Great and Little Dunmow. When
the grandson of this Baynard fell out with Henry I, it was not long
before that energetic monarch had a Fitzwalter enjoying the
advantages of the lordships.

Fitzwalters followed one another for ten generations. The family is
notable for the "Sir Reginald Fitzwalter" of Harrison Ainsworth's
ballad. Tradition has long declared him to be old Dugdale's Lord
Robert who "re-edified the decayed Priory of Dunmow." He had the
generalship of that "Army of God and Holy Church" which wrung Magna
Charta from John in 1215, and was "the first champion of English
liberty."

This knight (says Newcourt) lived in all affluence of Riches and
Honour, 16y and ob. 1234, 19 Hen. III, and was buried before the High
Altar in this Priory Church near his said daughter, the Fair Matilda.

The battered and chopped effigy of the Fitzwalter now lying by the
side of his wife in the church is no longer said to be, however, but
rather the bearer of the name who died in 1432.

The remaining figure in the church may or may not represent the "Fair
Matilda." A stern archæologist has suggested, indeed, that it is the
effigy of the wife of the second of the Fitzwalters. But the
touching and beautiful expression of the alabaster face goes well
with what history and tradition tell us of the lovely Matilda, and
with the tale originally told in the _Dunmow Chronicle_.

Legend has made her the "Maid Marian" whom Friar Tuck united to Robin
Hood, and the story is set forth in a novel by the author of the
once-esteemed _Proverbial Philosophy_.

"Maid Marian" is, however, as Dr. Brewer points out, the boy in the
Morris dance, and is so called from the morion which he wore on his
head. ("A set of morrice dancers," says Temple, "danced a maid
marian.")

But the story of the pursuit of the beautiful daughter of Fitzwalter
by John has been thought to be well founded. Upon her father
resisting the King he was dispossessed of all his property. Other
barons took sides against the sovereign, and Newcourt writes that
Fitzwalter fled into France. John, having spoiled the castles of
those who resisted him,

sent a messenger to the fair Matilda now remaining here in Dunmow
about hie old suit in love, and because she would not agree to his
wicked motion, the messenger poison'd a boil'd or poch'd egg against
she was hungry and gave it to her, whereof she died, and was buried
here in the choir at Dunmow, between two pillars in the S. side
thereof.

Another story is that the King sent Matilda a pair of poisoned
gloves. (_See_ Appendix.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: THE ANCIENT CHAIR AND THE "SHARP-POINTED STONES."]

THE ANCIENT CHAIR AND THE "SHARP-POINTED STONES."--Both are in the
Priory Church, the former within the altar rails, the latter just
outside.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: THE EFFIGIES IN THE PRIORY CHURCH.]

THE EFFIGIES IN THE PRIORY CHURCH.--Traditionally regarded as
representing the founder of the Flitch custom and his wife, and the
"Fair Matilda" poisoned by King John. There is no doubt that the
knight is one of the Fitzwalters, and that the female figure lying by
itself represents a member of the same house. An interment in 1627
recorded in the Register of the Church is described as "next to the
tomb of Matilda."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Then the King of France (Newcourt goes on) also began to waste his
(King John's) dominions, but a day of reconciliation being appointed
between the two Kings, King John passed over into France, and the two
Armies were parted by an arm of the sea.

Then an English knight went out and challenged any to break a spear
for his mistress's sake. Robert Fitzwalter came over, and,
encountering with his great Lance, overthrew both the Knight and the
Horse, and so returned to the King of France.

Then said King John, by God's Troth, he were a King indeed who had
such a Knight in his Retinue. His friends, hearing this, knelt
before the King and said, Sir, he is your Own Knight, and ready at
your command, Robert Fitzwalter. The next day he restored to him his
Barony with all appurtenances, and the two Kings were reconciled by
the interposition of Robert, and all the banished persons were
recalled, with leave to rebuild their castles.

"The death of Robin Hood with the lamentable Tragedie of Chaste
Matilda, his faire Maid Marian poisoned at Dunmowe by King John,"
printed in 1601, is one of two plays on the subject, and is reprinted
by Hazlitt. Michael Drayton wrote poetical accounts of the story,
and in 1639 Robert Davenport produced a third play, "King John and
Matilda."

CHAPTER VI

The Jury of Spinsters

The last Prior of Dunmow was Geoffry Shether.* After the Dissolution
of the Monasteries, the duty of giving the Bacon seems to have passed
to the Lords of the Manor of Little Dunmow. They held their
Courts--as they have been held within living memory--at Priory Place,
formerly a farmhouse and now four cottages. In a parchment book
belonging to a former Lord of the Manor, the Rev. James
Hughes-Hallett, and now in the possession of Mr. de Vins Wade of
Great Dunmow, the present Lord of the Manor, there is an account of
the Bacon ceremonies which was written in 1737.

* See Appendix.

It is therein stated that the custom was first instituted by the
monks "in ye year 1111 and continued to this day." The "two hard
stones" are described as "yet to be seen in the doorway of the
Pryory," and it is explained that "the oath was administered with
such long process, and such solemn singing over him, as doubtless
must make his Pilgrimage Painfull."

If it be true that the ceremony took place, as described, "before the
whole Towns," and that the successful applicant for the Bacon was
"carried after through the Towns with all the Fryers and Brethren and
all the Townsfolk, young and old, following them with shouts and
acclamations," it would appear that Great as well as Little Dunmow
had its share in the Flitch custom. The Manor of Little Dunmow
extends some distance into Great Dunmow.

In the Hughes-Hallett parchment (as also in Lansdowne Roll, 25,
British Museum), the Manorial ceremony is chronicled--

A Court Baron of the worshipfull Sir Thomas May, Knight, there helden
of Fryday, the 27th day of June in the Thirteenth year of King
William ye Third and in ye year 1701 before Thomas Wheeler, Gent.,
steward of the said Court.

Be it remembered that William Parsley of Much Eyston in the County of
Essex and Jane his wife, being married for the space of 3 years last,
past and upwards, by means of their Quiet, Peaceful, Tender and
Loving Cohabitation for the said space of time, came and claimed the
Bacon, and there was delivered unto them a Gammon of Bacon.

The homage of the last mentioned were Elizabeth Beaumont, Henrietta,
Annabella, Jane Beaumont and Mary Wheeler, Spinsters.

Be it remembered that att the Said Court it is found and presented by
the Homage aforesaid that John Reynolds of Hatfield Regis, alias
Hatfield Broadoak, in the County of Essex, gent., and Ann his wife
have been married for the space of ten years last, part and upwards,
and it is likewise found, presented by the Homage aforesaid that the
said John Reynolds and Ann his wife by means of their Quiet,
Peaceable, etc., etc.

Whereupon the said Steward, with the Jury, suitors and other officers
of the Court, proceeded with the usual solemnity to the ancient and
accustomed place for the Administration of the Oath (and receiving
the Bacon aforesaid), that is to say to the two great stones lying
near the church door within the said Manor

Whereupon the said John Reynolds and Ann kneeling down on the said
two stones the said Steward did administer unto them the Oaths in
these words or this effect following--

You shall swear by Custom of Confession
That you ne'er made Nuptial Transgression;
Nor since you were married Man and Wife,
By Household Brawls or Contentious Strife,
Or otherwise in Bed or att board,
Offended each other in deed or word;
Or in a Twelve month time and a Day,
Repented not in Thought any way;
Or since the Church clerk said Amen,
Wish'd yourselves unmarried again,
But continued true, and in desire,
As when you join'd hand in holy Choire.

And immediately thereupon ye said John Reynolds and Ann, claiming the
said Bacon, the Court pronounced sentence for the same in these words
or to the effect following, viz.--

Since to these Conditions without any fear,
Of your own accords you do truly swear;
A whole Gammon of Bacon you do receive,
And bear it away with love and good leave;
For this is the Custom at Dunmow well known.
Tho' the Pleasure be ours, the Bacon's your own.

And accordingly a Gammon of Bacon with the usual solemnity was
delivered unto John Reynolds and Ann his wife.

The interesting entry follows--

"N.B.--All the above mentioned Homage and Mrs. Ann Reynolds are still
living."

CHAPTER VII

--And Bachelors

The Dunmow Bacon ceremony is discussed in the _Spectator_ of October
15, 1714, and in the succeeding number, the writer concluding--

I hope your readers are satisfied of this truth, that as love
generally produces matrimony, so it often happens that matrimony
produces love.

Thirty-seven years later there is a record of the giving of the Bacon
by the Lord of the Manor, the recipients being Thomas Shakeshaft, of
the parish of Weathersfield, Essex, weaver, and Ann his wife. They
figure in the _Everyday Book_ illustration. The "Hommage" on this
occasion consisted of Bachelors as well as Spinsters--

HOMMAGE.

William Townsend, Gent.
Mary Cater, Spinster.
John Strutt, the younger, Gent.
Martha Wickford, Spinster
James Raymond, the younger, Gent.
Elizabeth Smith, Spinster.
Daniel Heckford, Gent.
Catherine Brett, Spinster.
Robert Mapletoft, Gent.
Eliza Hazlefoot, Spinster.
Richard Birch, Gent.
Sarah Mapletoft, Spinster.

At this ceremony--it is reported in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ and
the _London Magazine_ of the year--some five thousand persons were
present. The weaver Shakeshaft and his wife are said to have made a
good deal of money by selling slices of their gammon.

Photographs of prints of scenes at the Shakeshaft presentation--one
from a painting by David Ogbourne, a local artist*--are now
reproduced.

* _See Essex Review_, vol. viii.

It is as well the pictorial records were made, for this ceremony of
1751 is regarded as "the last legitimate instance" of the
presentation of the Bacon.

An old copperplate from Ogbourne's painting has recently been
acquired by Mr. Hastings Worrin.

By the kindness of Mr. de Vins Wade we are able to furnish
photographs of the receipts given by the Reynoldses and the
Shakeshafts for their Bacon.

The names of the witnesses who "doe certify the proceedings" at the
Shakeshaft ceremony are--Susannah Smith, Susannah Calvert, Thomas
Pocklington, James Turner (? Turvin), W. Wicksted, and Mark Gretton,
Curate, who is no doubt the clerical figure shown in the Ogbourne
picture.

Mr. Wade's father and grandfather were stewards of the Manor, of
which he is now the Lord, from 1796 to 1837, and from 1837 to 1871
respectively. Mr. de Vins Wade became steward in 1891 and Lord of
the Manor by purchase in 1903. The records in Mr. Wade's possession
go back to 1640.

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[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE OLDEST PART OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.]

REMAINS OF THE OLDEST PART OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.--Similar work is
found in Glastonbury Abbey.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF PRIORY CHURCH BEFORE "RESTORATION."]

INTERIOR OF PRIORY CHURCH BEFORE "RESTORATION."--A lithograph from a
drawing by A. Barfield of Great Dunmow, published in 1837. The
square pews, in which some of the people sat with their backs to the
parson, remained till 1872-3.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER VIII

The Bacon Refused

The register of the Priory Church of Little Dunmow starts with the
year 1555, but it says nothing about the presentations of Bacon.

Following the Shakeshaft presentation of 1751 there is said (in
Chambers's _Book of Days_) to have been an award in 1763. But Mr.
Wade, on examining the records of the Manor, finds that no court was
held in that year, "so," as he says, "there could not have been a
proper presentation." The story seems to be incorrect. It may be
mentioned that the first Essex newspaper was not started till 1764.
In 1772 a couple who applied for the Flitch after due notice, and
appeared with "a great concourse of people," found, "to the great
disappointment of the happy couple and their numerous attendants, the
Priory gates fast nailed in pursuance of the express orders of the
Lord of the Manor."

Six years later, however, the Custom was sufficiently alive for there
to be produced at the Haymarket Theatre a "ballad opera" called _The
Flitch of Bacon_. It was the work of one Henry Bates, the son of an
Essex clergyman, but was poor stuff. A better verse than most ran--

Since a year and a day
Have in love roll'd away,
And an oath of that love has been taken,
On the sharp pointed stones.
With your bare marrow bones,
You have won our fam'd Priory bacon.

The "poetry" written in connexion with the Flitch ceremony is indeed
more remarkable for quantity than quality. Four lines, produced in
1803 and supposed to be a farmer's reply to an inquiry as to how he
came by the Flitch, run--

I'll inform you, my friend, how it come.
You yourself will acknowledge the reason is clear,
As soon as I tell you that my pretty dear
Has been all her life--deaf and dumb!

It is often said that when Queen Victoria had been married a year and
a day--ergo in 1841--the then Lord of the Manor privately offered a
Flitch to Her Majesty, but that the compliment was declined. Mr.
Wade, however, does not remember to have heard anything of the
matter, and the story may have had its origin in the publication of
the burlesque of Stothard's picture. In the year 1851, just a
century after the Shakeshafts had had their Gammon, the Bacon was
refused by the Lord of the Manor to a humbler personage, a yeoman
farmer of the name of Hurrell and his wife, living at Felsted, a
village lying in sight of Little Dunmow.

Thereupon, in order that the local custom should not be extinguished,
it was arranged to give Mr. and Mrs. Hurrell their Bacon at a "rural
fête" at Easton Park. The thing was done with an imitation of the
old ceremony and with much enthusiasm, band-playing and eating and
drinking, in the presence of three thousand people, "rich and poor,
gentle and simple."

CHAPTER IX

Enter the Novelist

The novel, _The Flitch of Bacon: or, the Custom of Dunmow, A Tale of
English Home_, was published by Harrison Ainsworth in 1854. It was
dedicated to Tauchnitz of the famous Leipzig editions.

Much of the action takes place in a mythical Dunmow Flitch Inn, which
is described as having once been the home of "Sir Walter Fitzwalter."
The story turns largely on the desire of the four-times married
landlord of this hostelry to gain the Bacon.

The house Ainsworth is thought to have had in mind is Rose Farm, a
building overlooking the Church. "Monkbury Place," the Lord of the
Manor's house, is imaginary, and Sir Gilbert de
Montfichet--Mountfichet is a local name, however--has no place in
history.

The novel is hard reading, but its publication had the effect of
attracting a good deal of notice to that "Custom of Dunmow" described
as "of late years discontinued." The inhabitants of Great Dunmow--in
the face of "injudicious but fruitless opposition"--at length
proceeded to form a Committee, and Mr. Ainsworth subscribed five
guineas and the cost of two Flitches of Bacon to a fund for a revival
of the ceremony.

When the notices were issued quite a number of applications were
received. A Kentish veterinary surgeon and his wife were among the
selected couples, but the wife died before the ceremony took place.
Eventually the opportunity of presenting themselves at the "trial"
was given to the Chevalier and Madame de Chatelain of London, known
as translators from the French and German, and to Mr. James Barlow, a
Chipping Ongar builder, and his wife.

The "jury of maidens and bachelors" sat in the Town Hall, which was
decorated with flowers, and for the first time there were "Counsel
for the claimants" and "for the Bacon," also a Crier who, "with mock
ceremony," opened the Court.

The successful candidates were "carried in procession to a fête near
the town," where Mr. Ainsworth awarded the Flitches. The management
appears to have been placed in the hands of the lessee of Drury Lane.

Two years afterwards Mr. Harrison Ainsworth again presented Flitches.
The candidates were Dr. and Mrs. J. N. Hawkins of Victoria Place,
Regent's Park, and Jeremiah Heard, a Staffordshire policeman, and his
wife.

For some reason or other the Bacon was awarded to Mr. and Mrs. Heard
only; "a silver testimonial" was given to Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins. In
the course of the day, we are told, Mr. Ainsworth animadverted on the
action of the Lord of the Manor in "neglecting to keep up his
charter."

CHAPTER X

The Winners of the Bacon

Through the instrumentality of a local Committee, awards of the Bacon
were also made in 1869, 1874 and 1876. The next presentation took
place in 1890. The following is a list of recipients from that year
onwards--

1890. Mr. and Mrs. J. HOY, Tottenham.

1891. Rev. and Mrs. W. C. WALLACE, Shebbear Vicarage, Highampton, N.
Devon.

Mr. and Mrs. WILLIAM BOWEN, Hounslow.

1892. Mr. and Mrs. JOSEPH HIRD, Turner's Road, Burdett Road, Bow.

Mr. and Mrs. D. BRIDGMAN, Tycoe Villa, Allenby
Road, Forest Hill.

1893. Mr. and Mrs. F. WEBB, Needwood Villas, Falling Heath,
Wednesbury.

Mr. and Mrs. PHIL. GARNER, West Molesey, Surrey.

1894. Mr. and Mrs. ANGELO FAHIE, Monketown, Dublin.

Mr. and Mrs. D. WELCH, Essenden, Herts.

1895. Sergt.-Major and Mrs. D. BAKER, Plumstead.

Mr. and Mrs. G. JOHNSON, Market Harborough.

Mr. and Mrs. CLOUGH, Surlingham, Norfolk.

1896. Mr. and Mrs. ALFRED DRURY, Queen's College, Oxford.

Mr. and Mrs. H. JOHNSON, 35, Clayton Buildings,
Kennington Road, Lambeth.

Mr. and Mrs. EDWARD ROOKE, White Cottage,
Hailey Lane, Great Amwell, Herts.

1897. Mr. and Mrs. J. LAMBERT, 43, Mildmay Road, Islington.

Mr. and Mrs. G. TAYLOR, Little Leighs.

1898. Mr. and Mrs. F. HERBERT, Hounslow.

Mr. and Mrs. JAMES FROST, Sutton, Surrey.

1899. Mr. and Mrs. A. McCULLOCK, Norwich.

1900. Mr. and Mrs. EVELYN J. EVATT, Newcastle.

Mr. and Mrs. J. MUNNINGS, Pinner, Middlesex.

1901. Mr. and Mrs. J. O. DEVEREUX, 62, Nelson Square, Southwark, S.E.

Mr. and Mrs. H. E. CLARKE, Stepney, E.

1902. Mr. and Mrs. G. H. WALLIS, Derby.

Mr. and Mrs. ALFRED BROOK, Bromley, Kent.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: EARLY PRINTS OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.]

EARLY PRINTS OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.--Top drawing by T. M. Baynes;
published 1822. Lower drawing by J. Craig.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: FURTHER PRINTS OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.]

FURTHER PRINTS OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.--The top illustration is from an
old print, undated. The lower engraving is by J. Newton; published
1786.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

1903. Mr. and Mrs. J. C. KEEBLE, Northampton.

Mr. and Mrs. W. L. JACKAMAN, Felixstowe.

1904. Mr. and Mrs. C. HOLFORD, Putney.

Mr. and Mrs. QUIGGIN.

1905. Rev. and Mrs. O. F. S. P. JENKINS, St. John's, Mold. N. Wales.

Mr. and Mrs. F. J. G. NOAKES, 17, Bedlum, Bitterly,
Ludlow, Salop.

1906. Mr. and Mrs. W. S. J. LLOYD-WILLEY, 5, Cottage Grove, Bow, E.

Mr. and Mrs. H. LEWIS MORGAN, 517, Cliff Road,
Bristol.

No ceremony has been held since 1906.

CHAPTER XI

The Scene at the Modern Ceremony

Humorous account of a recent Flitch festival, which appeared in the
London _Star_, may be reproduced in part, as an outsider's impression
of the modern ceremony--

The sun poured down on Dunmow meadows. Most of the population of the
country round was gathered in holiday dress, and a steam barrel
organ, which neighed a series of melodies without intermission, drove
all the birds to the adjoining counties and made things sonorously
cheerful. The rustics threw balls at cocoanuts, drank beer, ate
cakes, and disported themselves innocently through the early hours
awaiting the matrimonial inquisition.

The huge marquee tent, where the secrets of several households were
to be ruthlessly laid bare, was visited by a number of chubby
gentlemen who whispered mysteriously. Finally, at three o'clock all
was ready, and public shillings flowed in a steady stream into the
committee's hat. Soon the tent was crowded to suffocation.

There was a platform with a big chair for the judge, a bench for the
claimants and tables for the counsel. There were twelve seats for
the jury on the left. An assortment of functionaries walked to and
fro on the stage and disappeared into side rooms through _portières_
artistically constructed of old corn bags blended in tasteful
harmony. Finally the _portières_ swung back and the historical
company appeared.

There was a Judge in scarlet and ermine wearing a full-bottomed wig
which appeared to have been thoughtfully improvised overnight from a
woolly grey doormat. There were two Counsel in wigs and gowns, one
for the claimants and one against them. There was an Usher in a gown
and fishing pole, which, it was explained to anxious enquirers, was
his rod of office. This picturesque party sat down with great
gravity, and looked at each other with great gravity until the jury
came in.

The Jury created a sensation. It consisted of six pairs of
strawberry and cream cheeks, six dimpled noses and six new straw
hats. It wore other things also, including white dresses and knots
of pink ribbon to indicate its official importance. It also giggled
and then looked serious, but it did not all giggle at once or look
serious at once.

After the young misses came six lads with knots of ribbon and feet
which the owners seemed to want to get out of the way. One juryman
in his despair had the courage to begin a conversation with the young
jurywoman in front of him.

It is one of the rules of the Flitch that the married couples shall
be judged by a Jury whose matrimonial knowledge is purely theoretical.

The first couple were a parson and his wife, both a little portly.
They were a charming couple however, and had the documents to prove
it. The second pair was a doctor and his wife and both wore
eye-glasses. They were slender. The wife smiled pleasantly and the
husband looked shrewd and good-natured. The lady belonging to the
third couple seemed starched and stiff and her husband had rather a
crisp expression. The first name of the male claimant in this case
was William Willie. Smaller absurdities than this have been the
subject of a domestic scene, but the life of Mr. and Mrs. William
Willie was understood to be beautiful. Mrs. William Willie was a
laundress, and William Willie occasionally helped her.

The history of each couple was given. They were all of middle age
and had all been married within a few years. Mr. William Willie, it
was said, fell in love with Mrs. William Willie at Hounslow, and,
though called to foreign parts, returned to find her faithful.

The attorney for the claimants was an eloquent man. He spoke of
Fitzwalter and other things and then he said that he was confident
that his clients would safely pass the ordeal and told the jury so
repeatedly, the jury giggling each time.

When the first couple stood up it was certainly very funny. The
audience laughed loud and long. There is nothing very much funnier
than a sedate and elderly couple being gravely questioned in the
presence of hundreds of people concerning the details of their daily
life. Mr. William Willie said his wife was the best woman in
England, and she always sweetly bade him goodbye when he went and
greeted him with a loving smile when he came. The searching
questions were so absurd and were answered in such a straightforward
way that the Counsel for the claimants lost control of himself and
laughed till the tears rolled down his cheeks, the audience doing
likewise.

Mrs. William Willie was equally straightforward but a little
uncomfortable. She explained that her husband wiped his feet in
muddy weather, did not smoke too much and never indulged in
spirituous liquors.

Finally the Counsel, with a triumphant glance at the Jury, turned
this pair over to the opposing Counsel.

Then came some impromptu repartee between Counsel, which was entirely
successful. Then searching questions by the Counsel for the Bacon
and more laughter. Mr. and Mrs. William Willie had testimonials from
friends who had visited them to say that a cross word was unknown in
their home. Counsel said that was all very well, but no one
quarrelled before company. He wanted to know whether affairs were
equally amicable in private. With great ingenuity he went over all
the various ways in which husbands manage to ruffle the feathers of
their spouses, but finally based his address to the Jury on the
general valuelessness of testimonials and the all-round improbability
of the whole story.

Then came another hot argument for the claimants, and the Judge
summed up with great impartiality. After this the case went to the
Jury.

It was awkward at first, but soon it got to whispering quite busily.
Each jurywoman leaned back and was talked to by the juryman behind
her, six pink ears being in such close proximity to six downy upper
lips that nobody was in the least surprised when it was announced
that the Jury wished to retire. It retired and it was gone many
minutes. It was even feared that it had eloped, and the usher with
the fishing pole was sent after it, and brought it back. It settled
down with more giggles and the verdict was announced: For the
claimants. And there was a storm of applause.

The other two cases passed off similarly and more quickly. Two such
tender husbands and two such happy wives were never seen. It was a
foregone conclusion in each case.

The chairing of the two couples through the crowds in the meadow with
their Bacon swinging before them followed.

It is hardly necessary to add the comment of an historian of Essex on
the attempt "to raise the ghost of the Custom": "The ceremony was
only a theatrical parade of dry bones; the ancient spirit of the
thing was not there--so impossible is it for society to go backward
or to clothe with flesh the skeleton of an obsolete habit or dead
custom, which modern feeling and refinement have long entombed."

Three years ago an imitation of the Dunmow celebration was attempted
at Walthamstow.

In 1909 the farmers round about Dunmow, by co-operating to form a
Dunmow Flitch Bacon Factory, carried forward the Bacon tradition on
new lines.

This local record--by a Vegetarian! for _tempora mutantur_, and with
the changed times which have overthrown the Flitch, _nos mutamur in
illis_--should not close perhaps without the following extract from a
rhyme in _Punch_. If a little better than some other poetical
effusions on the subject of the Flitch, it certainly ignores the
basic principle of the Flitch foundation, that it takes two to make a
quarrel!--

If ever through the coming year,
You feel a mood of deep distress,
The cause whereof may not appear
(Maybe the cook, or cussedness);
If there should come the moment when
You seem to lose your self-control,
And counting slowly up to ten
Fails to relieve your soul;
If you should feel insanely prone
To controversial debate
Till reason totters on her throne
For pure desire to aggravate;
If you would madly say, you will,
Merely because I hope you won't,
Dear, though it almost makes you ill,
Think of the Flitch, and don't.

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[Illustration: DUNMOW TOWN HALL, "COUNSEL FOR THE BACON", PRIORY
CHURCH IN 1802]

DUNMOW TOWN HALL, where the ceremony presided over by Harrison
Ainsworth took place.

"COUNSEL FOR THE BACON."--Mr. T. Gibbons in this rôle cross-examining
a Claimant.

PRIORY CHURCH IN 1802.--From a drawing of this date, valuable as
showing a part of the edifice now demolished.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: IN LITTLE DUNMOW, "PRIORY PLACE"]

IN LITTLE DUNMOW.--A typical old dwelling in Little Dunmow. It was
such an one, Rose Farm, that Harrison Ainsworth had in mind in
describing his Dunmow Flitch Inn.

"PRIORY PLACE."--An extremely old building now in use as cottages,
where the Courts of the Lord of the Manor were held. Supposed to be
on the site of the Priory Manor house.

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CHAPTER XII

Another Flitch Custom

A bacon custom, not unlike that of Dunmow, existed at Wichnor, a
little place near Lichfield. It originated in a jocular tenure by
which Sir Philip de Somerville held the Manor from Edward III. In
memory of that tenure a wooden Flitch of Bacon is displayed to this
day above the great fireplace in Wichnor Hall. The oath was to the
following effect--

Hear ye, Sir Philip de Somervile, lord of Whichenoure, maintainer and
giver of this Bacon, that I, A, syth I wedded B, my wyfe, and syth I
had her in my kepying and at wylle, by a Yere and a Daye after our
Marryage, I would not have changed for none other, farer ne fowler,
richer ne pourer, ne for none other descended of gretter lynage,
sleeping ne waking, at noo time, and if the said B were sole and I
sole, I would take her to be my wyfe before all other wymen of the
worlde, of what condytion soevere they be, good or evyle, as helpe me
God, and Seyntys, and this flesh and all fleshes.

The foregoing words are inscribed below the Flitch. There is a
reference to them, in one of Horace Walpole's Letters.

To an applicant who was a "villeyn" corn and a cheese were given in
addition to the Flitch. A horse was also provided to take him beyond
the limits of the Manor, the free tenants of which were to accompany
him with "trompets, tabourets, and other manoir of mynstralcie."

Pennant, who went to "Whichenoure House" in 1780, says the local
Flitch had "remained untouched from the first century of its
institution to the present." He also avers that "the late and
present worthy owners of the Manor were deterred from entering into
the holy state from the dread of not obtaining their own Bacon!" The
present owner of Wichnor, or Wychnor Park, is Mr. T. B. Levett. The
Lord of the Manor is Lord Lichfield. In the Lichfield Road there is
a "Flitch of Bacon" inn as there is in Little Dunmow.

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[Illustration: "FAIR MATILDA", TOMB OF THE LADY JUGA]

"FAIR MATILDA."--This is a photograph show in greater detail the
pathetic face of the effigy traditionally supposed to be that of
Fitzwalter's daughter.

TOMB OF THE LADY JUGA, who founded the Priory in 1104.

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[Illustration: FISH-POND OF THE MONKS, DETAIL OF CARVING]

FISH-POND OF THE MONKS.--Site of one of a remarkable series of fish
ponds--it may also be mill-ponds--which extend from near Priory Place.

DETAIL OF CARVING.--From the choir stalls of the church. Note the
flying pig, conceivably an allusion by some waggish monk to the
Flitch ceremony!

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CHAPTER XIII

The Bacon Over Sea

A few years ago Mr. Hastings Worrin, J.P., a churchwarden of the
Priory Church of Little Dunmow, and a well-known collector of
memorials of the Bacon ceremonies and of the old Priory, to whom the
writer of this record is greatly indebted, received a letter
addressed to "The Prior of Dunmow." It was from a New York lawyer
and his wife, also a member of the legal profession, who had had a
little Flitch celebration on their own account, and seemed to think
(as the _Times_ of August 21, 1803, actually did) that the old Priory
still existed--

Whereas, (runs a little fly sheet which they issued to their friends)
Girdwood Mulliner and Gabrielle his wife, in reverence for the old
tradition, its quaint basic thought so sweetly resting in the
sanctity of the marriage relation, knowing in their hearts that they
have earned the Flitch of Bacon by the sure right of their living,
although far from the Priory and the pointed stones, do here and now
kneel and lay claim to it--

I, Leslie Allen Wright, the chief attendant to the Bridegroom upon
his day of wedding, praying a grace of pardon for usurping the
Prior's rightful duty, yet feeling the fine prompting spirit of the
ancient custom, do now bestow upon these two worthy persons, Walter
Girdwood Mulliner and Gabrielle his wife, a Flitch of Bacon.

May they in all the added years of their life grow in Ripeness and in
Spirit. Amen.

A Bacon custom in Brittany has been referred to. Mention may also be
made of a German story, "The Man and the Flitch of Bacon"; also of
the Flitch which hung in the old Red Tower of Vienna with doggerel
below it which Dr. Bell has thus translated--

Is there to be found a married man
That in verity declare can,
That his marriage him doth not rue,
That he has no fear of his wife for a shrew,
He may this Bacon for himself down hew?

The tale goes that a would-be possessor of the Red Tower Bacon asked,
when a ladder had been brought for his assistance, that some one
should cut down the Flitch for him, as if he got a grease-spot on his
best clothes his wife would scold him! Needless to say, this
applicant was not allowed to have the Bacon.

Dr. Bell traces to the earliest times the origin of all customs of
hanging up Bacon. Does not Dionysius Halicarnassus mention the
presence of a fine Flitch in the chief temple at Alba Longa?
Jewellers still sell as charms little pigs of gold, silver and bog
oak, and in time past the side of what had once been a sow was no
doubt displayed as an emblem of fertility.

APPENDIX

The Last Prior of Dunmow

In the Manuscript Department of the British Museum one may turn over
in Latin and in an old English transcript, the household accounts
kept by Geoffrey Shether, the last Prior of Dunmow. During the last
four years of the Priory's existence, 1531-5, that is up to the time
of the dissolution of the minor monasteries, the Prior entered up his
accounts every Sunday in a long narrow book such as one sees on
bakers' counters.

The entries at the very end of the book are in regard to the payment
to one "Purcas"--still a Little Dunmow name--"for iiij days' werke,
xxd," and to two "labryng" men for their "werke." Earlier in the
book a payment "to my stuarde for kepying of my Curte at Dunmowe" is
chronicled. A large proportion of the expenses are in respect of
farm work or stock. There is an entry more than once for "stoor
bolox." On several occasions expenditure was incurred for the
ringing of pigs and the destruction of rats. There are also various
sums for work on the steeple.

The fishponds of our illustration do not appear to have yielded all
the fish needed by the Priory, for there are two entries for
"fyscche" bought. If there is no mention of Bacon, there are
"rewardes for venison," and if no allusion occurs to the Flitch
ceremony, it was not, apparently, because the Prior would have been
above being interested in such a mundane thing, for twice or thrice
he puts down "my costs at the feyr," and he gave a "reward to the
Lord of Mysrule of Dunmow." Moreover, is there not an entry, "For
sugar candy I bowte"?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: THE WICHNOR FLITCH, SILVER RING, RELIQUARY, IMPRESSION]

THE WICHNOR FLITCH.--The wooden flitch over the fireplace at Wichnor
Hall, near Lichfield, where there was a local Bacon custom.

SILVER RING with Clasped Hands, no doubt a Betrothal Ring; also

RELIQUARY, both found near the Priory Church.

IMPRESSION of a Seal, found at Little Dunmow, which probably belonged
to one of the Priors of Dunmow. The inscription is: "Ave Maria,
gratia plena, Dominums tecum." The words are from the Missal. The
ring is of silver.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: THE PRIORY CHURCH IN ITS SADLY MODERN GUISE.]

The Fair Matilda

The story of the poisoning of the Fair Matilda is in the Cotton MS.,
Cleopatra, C. iii., folio 291 (British Museum), a sixteenth or early
seventeenth century copy of or extract from the _Dunmow Chronicle_.
The original of the _Chronicle_ has not been traced. Tanner in his
_Notitia Monastica_ does not mention it, but only the Cotton MS. and
the Harley MS. referred to in the Introduction to this booklet. The
story is entered under the year 1211, in which "mota est discordia
inter Regem Johannem et Barones suos occasione Matildis," etc. The
Chartulary of Dunmow Priory (page 20), a register of charters, deeds,
etc., is quite a different thing from the _Chronicle_, and does not
contain the story. The Chartulary is in handwriting of the
thirteenth century. The rubric at the beginning gives the date of
its compilation as 1275. A few documents have been copied into it at
later times.

The photographs of the effigies and of the chair in Little Dunmow
Church are by Mr. F. T. Morris, of Felsted; of the modern trial scene
and procession by Mr. R. Stacey, of Dunmow; of the Counsel for the
Bacon by Mr. J. Willett, of Dunmow; of the rest of the subjects (with
the exception of the manuscripts) by Miss Arundel, B.A., of Great
Canfield, by kind permission of Mr. Hastings Worrin, J.P., of Little
Dunmow, in whose possession they are. The photograph of carving in
the Church was taken for Mr. Worrin. The photograph of the fireplace
in Wichnor Hall is by Mr. J. S. Simnett, Guild Street,
Burton-on-Trent.

For the List of Winners of the Bacon on page 47, we are indebted to
the Misses Carter, Dunmow.

Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works Frome and London

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STRANGE STORY OF THE DUNMOW FLITCH ***

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