WALES.
Formerly it was customary to take such hens as had not laid eggs before Shrove Tuesday, and to thrash them to death, as being no longer of any use. The same custom also prevailed in some parts of Cornwall.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 81; Book of Days, vol. i. p. 238.
At Harding, in Flintshire, the lord of the manor, attended by his bailiff, formerly provided a foot-ball, and after throwing it down in a field near the church (called thence foot-ball field) the young and old assembled together to play at foot-ball.—Kennett MS. British Museum.
At Tenby Shrove Tuesday was formerly a general holiday, when the time was divided between foot-ball-kicking and pancake-eating. The shutters remained upon the shop-windows, while the windows of the private houses were barricaded with wood, or blinded with laths, bags, and sacking.—Mason, Tales and Traditions of Tenby, 1858, pp. 17, 18.