Flitch of bacon custom had not actually seen one another for over a year since their marriage. As well as to married couples, a flitch of bacon was also given at Whichnoure to men in the religious profession one year and a day following their retirement. A rather better-known example of the awarding of a flitch of bacon to married couples occurred at Little Dunmow Priory in Essex. It is generally held to have been instituted by the family of Robert Fitzwalter in the 13th century. According to Rev. W. W. Skeat in his notes to the fourteenth-century "The Vision of William Concerning Piers
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