A MS. in the British Museum quoted by Brand states, that in 1560, it was
a custom at _Eton_ school on Shrove Tuesday for the cook to fasten a
pancake to a crow upon the school door; and as crows usually hatch at
this season, the cawing of the young ones for their parent, heightened
this heartless sport. From a question by Antiquarius, in the
“Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1790, it appears that it is a custom on Shrove
Tuesday at _Westminster_ school for the under clerk of the college,
preceded by the beadle and the other officers, to throw a large pancake
over the bar which divides the upper from the lower school. Brand
mentions a similar custom at _Eton_ school. Mr. Fosbroke is decisive in
the opinion that pancakes on Shrove Tuesday were taken from the heathen
Fornacalia, celebrated on the 18th of February, in memory of making
bread, before ovens were invented, by the goddess Fornax.