Friday, 9 October 2026

Horrific Historic Customs: Dog-Whipping and Wife-Selling


Are we guilty of over-romanticising customs of the past? There's been a huge resurgence of interest in folklore and seasonal festivities, with revivals of parades and festivals from bygone times. Mostly these are viewed as rebellious fun, something good from that past. But it's easy to overlook the horrific historic customs that happened too. 

Old Michaelmas Day is on October 10 and was in the past a time for agricultural fairs in many parts of England. As well as being when animals were sold, it was a time when summer farming contracts ended and labourers would be looking for new employment over the winter months. They might even have been turned out of homes that were tied to that seasonal work. That in itself could mean hardship. But I'm going to mention two even worse customs.

Dog-Whipping

In Yorkshire, October 10 was Dog-Whipping Day. This began when a stray dog ate the consecrated wafers during a mass at York Minster. According to Steve Roud in The English Year, many churches all over Europe regularly employed people to keep stray animals - and apparently beggars - out of the services. They were sometimes called dog-whippers or dog-rappers. That job title explicitly shows these were not charitable concerns aiming to rehome the poor creatures. Thankfully the practice was stopped in the mid to late 19th century.

Wife-Selling

An even worse fate might await women with abusive husbands. Back in the 17th century, divorce wasn't possible for anyone unless they were really wealthy, but a form of unofficially ending for a marriage developed in which a husband brokered a contract to sell their spouse to another man, often for an exchange of money. It was never legal, but became a recognised folk practice with a set ritual. It continued until the 19th century.

The wife would be led by a halter to an inn or marketplace and sold in public like a horse or cow, sometimes by auction to the highest bidder. The central character in Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge sells his wife at the start of the novel, an act that leads to misery throughout the story. 

In The English Year, Steve Roud places Wife-Selling as something that might happen at fairs around the time of Old Michaelmas Day. Perhaps this was more likely to happen at a time of seasonal change when hardship and poverty lay ahead. Whether or not that was the reason, no one should doubt that the women suffered far more than the men over being treated like cattle brought to market. 

The picture at the top is called Selling a Wife (1812–1814), by Thomas Rowlandson. The painting is thought to try to give the impression that the sale was jolly - but it gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

Let's not over-romanticise the past

Both of the customs I've mentioned here seem far more horrific than any of the activities of Halloween, and I think it's important to remember the past wasn't all dressing up and dancing in a way that made everyone happy. Let's not over-romanticise the past.

You can view The English Year on Amazon. 

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