« I find the stairs full of people, there being a great riding there

to-day for a man, a constable of the town, whose wife beat him. »

« J’ai trouvé les escaliers remplis de monde, un grand riding ayant

lieu là aujourd’hui pour un homme, un notable de la ville, que sa femme a battu. »

La note dit :

« It was an ancient custom in Berkshire, when a man had beaten his wife, for the neighbours to parade in front of his house, for the purpose of serenading him with kettles, and horns, and hand-bells, and every species of “ rough music ” by which name the ceremony was designated. Perhaps the riding mentioned by Pepys was a punishment somewhat similar. Malcolm […] quotes from a Protestant Mercury, about the close of the seventeenth century, that a porter’s lady, who resided near Strand Lane, beat her husband with so much violence and perseverance, that the poor man was compelled to leap out of the window, to escape her fury. Exasperated at this virago, the neighbours made a “ riding ”; i.e. a pedestrian procession, headed by a drum, and accompanied by a chemise, displayed for a banner. The manual musician sounded the tune of “ You roundheaded cuckholds, come dig, come dig ! ” and nearly seventy coalheavers, carmen, and porters, adorned with large horns, fastened to their heads, followed. »