Perth.
Minor Queries Answered.
_Hornchurch; Wrestling for the Boar's Head._--I have extracted from the
_Daily News_ of the 5th instant, the following paragraph, which appears
to have been quoted from the _Chelmsford Chronicle_, relative to this
custom:--
"By ancient charter or usage in Hornchurch, a boar's head is
wrestled for in a field adjoining the church; a boar, the property
of the parish, having been slaughtered for the purpose. The boar's
head, elevated on a pole, and decorated with ribbons, was brought
into the ring, where the competitors entered and the prize
awarded."
The paragraph goes on further to observe that if the prize be taken by
_a champion_ out of the parish, the charter is lost. And I shall be glad
to know the origin of the custom, and of the notion of the charter or
usage, as it is called, being lost if the prize be taken away as before
alluded to. I observe that it is noticed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_
for April, 1828, p. 305.