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."