The Dunmow Flitch Ceremony 'The concluding scene of a carnival held on at Ilford, one of the Essex dormitories of London, would have amazed anyone who' came upon it by chance. A man an woman, seated in a big, old-fashioned chair, and _bashfully smiling, were being carried shoulder high, preceded by a brass band and' attended by an enormous crowd, cheering and laughing. What' would have puzzled the chance spectator most was the huge side of bacon, decorated with ribbons. which' hung suspended above the chair, Ilford, in fact, was reviving the ancient custom so long associated with dun mow of awarding a flitch of bacon to the happiest married couple that could be found locally.
The ceremony of "chairing" was preceded by a court, held in the military hall of the Gordon Club grounds, for the trial of the claim 5 mants, and an audience of well over a thousand people extracted a good deal of amusement from the consideration of the question—"Tg marriage o failure?" The most conspicuous object in the court was the flitch of bacon, which was to be given to the couple who could prove that they had lived together for a year and a day without any quarrel and without wishing themselves unwed. Tt hung to the right of the judge, beribboned as a thing so rare and costly well deserved to be and what the audience appeared to envy the claimants most for was not so much their domestic felicity as the chance they had of consuming 80 desirable an object, Scexe ix Covrr.
Phe married couple who claimed the flitch were three in number, the husbands being school teacher, police constable, and sign-writer, and the ages between 30 and 40. They sab together in a box to the left of the judge, and gave no sign whatever that, in the language the old police court reporter, they felt their position acutely. Opposite to them were the jury—six maidens and six youths—who were to decide which of them deserved the bacon. The judge on the bench wore the wig, scarlet and ermine of the High Court of Justice. In the well of the court were the opposing counsel, for the claimants and the fitch, two for each male and female, the men in recognized professional garb, and the girls in scarlet gowns and caps.
The proceedings gave rise to some excellent fooling which the audience greatly appreciated. But perhaps the most remoraable thing that came to light was that the question at issue, "Is marriage a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.