The interesting entry follows—
"N.B.—All the above mentioned Homage and Mrs. Ann Reynolds are still living."
CHAPTER VII
—And Bachelors
The Dunmow Bacon ceremony is discussed in the Spectator of October 15, 1714, and in the succeeding number, the writer concluding—
I hope your readers are satisfied of this truth, that as love generally produces matrimony, so it often happens that matrimony produces love.
Thirty-seven years later there is a record of the giving of the Bacon by the Lord of the Manor, the recipients being Thomas Shakeshaft, of the parish of Weathersfield, Essex, weaver, and Ann his wife. They figure in the Everyday Book illustration. The "Hommage" on this occasion consisted of Bachelors as well as Spinsters—
HOMMAGE.
William Townsend, Gent.
Mary Cater, Spinster.
John Strutt, the younger, Gent.
Martha Wickford, Spinster
James Raymond, the younger, Gent.
Elizabeth Smith, Spinster.
Daniel Heckford, Gent.
Catherine Brett, Spinster.
Robert Mapletoft, Gent.
Eliza Hazlefoot, Spinster.
Richard Birch, Gent.
Sarah Mapletoft, Spinster.
At this ceremony—it is reported in the Gentleman's Magazine and the London Magazine of the year—some five thousand persons were present. The weaver Shakeshaft and his wife are said to have made a good deal of money by selling slices of their gammon.