Lancashire.
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.