British Popular Customs, Present and Past. T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

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      At Baldock, Shrove Tuesday is long anticipated by the children, who designate it Dough-Nut-Day; it being usual to make a good store of small cakes fried in hog’s lard, placed over the fire in a brass skillet, called dough-nuts, with which the young people are plentifully regaled.—Brand, Pop. Antiq., 1849, vol. i. p. 83.

      At Hoddesdon, in the same county, the old curfew-bell, which was anciently rung in that town for the extinction and relighting of “all fire and candle-light,” still exists, and has from time immemorial been regularly rang on the morning of Shrove Tuesday at four o’clock, after which hour the inhabitants are at liberty to make and eat pancakes until the bell rings again at eight o’clock at night. So closely is this custom observed, that after that hour not a pancake remains in the town.—Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 242.

Huntingdonshire.

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      Formerly there prevailed in this county a custom called cock-running, which, though not quite so cruel as cock-throwing, was not much inferior to it. A cock was procured, and its wings were cut: the runners paid so much a head, and with their hands tied behind them ran after it, and the person who caught it in his mouth, and carried it to a certain place or goal, had the right of claiming the bird as his own. In this race there was much excitement, and not a little squabbling, and the one who was lucky enough to secure the bird frequently had his face and eyes very much pecked.—Time’s Telescope, 1823, p. 40.

Kent.

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      At All Saints’, Maidstone, the ancient custom of ringing a bell at mid-day on Shrove Tuesday is observed, and is known as the “Fritter-Bell.”—Gent. Mag. 1868, 4th S. vol. v. p. 761.

Lancashire.

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      Part of the income of the head-master and usher of the grammar-school at Lancaster arises from a gratuity called a cock-penny, paid at Shrovetide by the scholars, who are sons of freemen; of this money the head-master has seven-twelfths, the usher five-twelfths. It is also paid at the schools at Hawkshead and Clithero, in Lancashire; and formerly was paid, also at Burnley, and at Whiteham and Millom, in Cumberland, near Bootle.—Brand, Pop. Antiq., 1849, vol. i. p. 72.

      The tossing of pancakes (and in some places fritters) on this day was a source of harmless mirth, and is still practised in the rural parts of Lancashire and Cheshire, with its ancient accompaniments:

      “It is the day whereon both rich and poor,

       Are chiefly feasted on the self-same dish;

       When every paunch, till it can hold no more,

       Is fritter fill’d, as well as heart can wish;

       And every man and maide doe take their turne,

       And tosse their pancakes up for feare they burne

       And all the kitchen doth with laughter sound,

       To see the pancakes fall upon the ground.”

      Pasquil’s Palinodia. Harland and Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk Lore, 1867, p. 218.

Leicestershire.

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      In the Newark, says Throsby (History of Leicester 1791, p. 356), on Shrove Tuesday is held the annual fair, chiefly for the amusement of the young. Formerly, there was practised in its full extent the barbarous custom of throwing at cocks, but now the amusement is confined to the purchase of oranges, ginger-bread, &c., and to a custom known by the name of “Whipping-Toms;” a practice no doubt instituted by the dwellers in the Newark to drive away the rabble, after a certain hour, from the fair. Two, three, or more men, armed with cart-whips, and with a handkerchief tied over one eye, are let loose upon the people to flog them, who are generally guarded with boots on their legs and sticks in their hands. These whip-men, called “Whipping-Toms,” are preceded by a bell-man, whose shake of his hand-bell gives a token or authority for the whipping the legs of those who dare to remain in the Newark. Many arts and devices are practised by the Whipping-Toms to take the people by surprise; but quarrels sometimes ensue.

      At Claybrook, in the same county, a bell rings at noon, which is meant as a signal for people to commence frying their pancakes.—Macaulay, History of Claybrook, 1791.

Isle of Man.

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      On this occasion it was formerly customary for the Manks to have Sollaghyn or Crowdy for dinner, instead of for breakfast, as at other times; and for supper, flesh meat, with a large pudding and pancakes; hence the Manks proverb:

      “Ee shibber oie innid vees olty volg lane,

       My jig laa caisht yon traaste son shen.”

      “On Shrove Tuesday night, though thy supper be fat,

       Before Easter Day thou may’st fast for that.”

      Train, History of the Isle of Man, 1845, vol. ii. p. 117.

Middlesex.

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      At Westminster School, London, the following is observed to this day. At 11 o’clock A.M. a verger of the Abbey, in his gown, bearing a silver bâton, emerges from the college kitchen, followed by the cook of the school, in his white apron, jacket, and cap, and carrying a pancake. On arriving at the school-room door, he announces himself, ‘The Cook;’ and having entered the school-room, he advances to the bar which separates the upper school from the lower one, twirls the pancake in the pan, and then tosses it over the bar into the upper school, among a crowd of boys, who scramble for the pancake; and he who gets it unbroken, and carries it to the deanery, demands the honorarium of a guinea (sometimes two guineas) from the Abbey funds, though the custom is not mentioned in the Abbey Statutes: the cook also receives two guineas for his performance.—Book of Days, vol. i. p. 237.

Norfolk.

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      It is customary at Norwich to eat a small bun called cocque’els—cook-eels—coquilles (the name being spelt indifferently), which is continued throughout the season of Lent. Forby, in his Vocabulary of East Anglia, calls this production “a sort of cross-bun,” but no cross is placed upon it, though its composition is not dissimilar. He derives the word from coquille in allusion to their being fashioned like an escallop, in which sense he is borne out by Cotgrave, who has “pain coquillé, a fashion of an hard-crusted loafe, somewhat like our stillyard bunne.” A correspondent of Notes and Queries says that he has always taken the word to be “coquerells,” from the vending of such buns at the barbarous sport of “throwing at the cock” (which is still called a cockerell in E. Anglia) on Shrove Tuesday.—N. & Q. 1st S. vol. i. pp. 293 and 412.

      Formerly there used to be held at Norwich on Shrove Tuesday