I do not know if my friend gave any name to this practice; if he did, I have since forgotten it. Doubtless, some of your Oxford readers can assist me.
At Marchington, in Staffordshire, the custom exists of having what is called a "Rantipole Riding" for every man who beats his wife. The ceremony is performed with great care and solemnity. A committee is formed to examine into the case. Then the village poet is employed to give a history of the occurrence in verse. The procession goes round in the evening with a cart, which serves as a stage on which the scene is acted and from which the verses are recited. The custom has been there observed, with so much judgment and discretion, that it has been productive of much good, and has now almost entirely put a stop to this disgraceful practice. I can remember several "ridings" in my younger days.
MR. POTTER will find, upon referring to Vol. i., p. 245., that this custom prevails in Gloucestershire, with the substitution of _straw_ for _chaff_. I have seen the Gloucestershire version both in Kent and Sussex, and have received an explanation of it similar to MR. POTTER'S own supposition.
_Faithful Commin_ (Vol. ix., p. 155.).--Your correspondent W. H. GUNNER will find a detailed account of Faithful Commin in _Foxes and Firebrands_, a tract of which mention has been made in various Numbers of "N. & Q." It is there said to be extracted from the Memorials of Cecil Lord Burleigh, from whose papers it was transmitted to Archbishop Ussher. "The papers of the Lord Primate coming to the hands of Sir James Ware, his son, Robert Ware, Esq., has obliged the public by the communication of them."
_Heraldic Anomaly_ (Vol. ix., p. 430.).--TEE BEE'S description of the arms on St. John's Gate is somewhat defective. They are engraved, and more completely described, in Cromwell's _History of Clerkenwell_ [1828], p. 128.
_Odd Fellows_ (Vol. ix., p. 327.).--C. F. A. W. will find some of the Odd Fellows' secrets disclosed in a small volume entitled _A Ritual and Illustrations of Free Masonry, &c._, by a Traveller in the United States (third thousand): published by James Gilbert, 49. Paternoster Row, 1844. The Odd Fellows date from Adam, who was the odd and solitary representative of the human race before the creation of Eve.