One of the most strange customs which time has handed down to us,
prevails at St. Briavel's, in Gloucestershire. On Whit Sunday, several
baskets full of bread and cheese, cut into small squares of about an
inch each, are brought into the church; and immediately after divine
service is ended, the churchwardens, or some other persons, take them
into the galleries, from whence their contents are thrown amongst the
congregation, who have a grand scramble for it in the body of the
church, which occasions as great a tumult and uproar as the amusement of
a village wake, the inhabitants being always extremely anxious in their
attendance at worship on this day.
This custom is held for the purpose of preserving to the poor of St.
Briavel's and Hewelfield, the right of cutting and carrying away wood
from three thousand acres of coppice land, in Hudknolls and the Meends;
and for which every housekeeper is assessed twopence, to buy the bread
and cheese given away.