Flitch of bacon custom does not seem to have been claimed very often. Horace Walpole, who visited Whichnoure in 1760, reported that the flitch had not been claimed for thirty years and that a real flitch of bacon was no longer kept ready at the manor. A replacement, carved in wood, was now displayed over the mantle of the fireplace in the main hall, presumably in order to continue to meet the conditions of the original land grant. Walpole is quite taken by this tradition and mentions it in several letters to his friends. In a letter to the Countess of Ailesbury (Lady Caroline
Flitch of bacon custom Bull" on 8 October 1837 reported that it had been revived by the Saffron Walden and Dunmow Agricultural Society. Apparently however, this flitch was merely distributed at the annual society dinner. In 1851 a couple from Felstead were also refused a trial at the Priory, but obtained a flitch from the people of nearby Great Dunmow who felt that they deserved it. The flitch trials were revived in the Victorian era after the publication of Ainsworth's novel in 1854 which proved to be tremendously popular. Ainsworth aided the reinstitution by himself donating two flitches for the first of the revived