Frognal, Hampstead.
_"The Whipping Toms" at Leicester._--A singular annual custom, under the
above designation, formerly prevailed in this town, from time immemorial,
on Shrove Tuesday. It is unnecessary to take up your valuable space with a
detailed account of it, as it is fully described in Throsby's _History of
Leicester_, p. 356., and in Hone's _Year-Book_, p. 538.
My object is to inquire if any custom at all analogous to it is known to
have existed elsewhere, and, if so, what is the supposed origin of it?
Nothing whatever is known of the origin of the custom in this town, beyond
a vague popular tradition that it was instituted (like several other
curious customs) by John of Gaunt, during his lengthened residence in the
castle within what was then termed "The New-Works" of which (now called
"The Newarke") the gathering was held.
However venerable from its antiquity, it was, like too many of the sports
of the Middle Ages, a custom "more honoured in the breach than the
observance," and, as such, was put down in the year 1847 by a local act of
parliament; not, however, without a serious affray between the police and
the people.