THE WHOOP.
On the second Sunday in July there was a custom at Chaddesley Corbett to put strangers "through the whoop." I cannot ascertain exactly what this practice was, as the inhabitants from whom I have sought information fight exceedingly shy of it, and some even deny the existence of the custom; but one gentleman informs me that it was usual on that day for the lower order of the parishioners to play some practical joke—anything which first presented itself to their imaginations—upon whatever stranger happened to come within their boundary.