At Dunmow in Essex a flitch of bacon has for centuries been awarded to any married couple who could swear they had not quarrelled or repented of their marriage for a year and a day. Robertson Scott tells the custom’s history from the vanished priory onward, its winners and refusals, and its Victorian revival after Harrison Ainsworth’s novel, with juries of spinsters and bachelors.
A delightful small history of one of England’s oddest and most good-humoured traditions. Download the free EPUB.