The Pancake Greaze

Shrove Tuesday · Westminster School, London

Still kept

At eleven on Shrove Tuesday a verger of Westminster Abbey with a silver baton led the school cook, in white apron, jacket and cap, into the schoolroom carrying a pancake. The cook tossed it over the bar that divided the upper school from the lower, and the boys scrambled for it; whoever carried it unbroken to the deanery claimed a guinea from the Abbey funds. At Eton in Elizabeth’s time the cook fastened a pancake to the school door instead. The Westminster pancake greaze is still held every Shrove Tuesday.

twirls the pancake in the pan, and then tosses it over the bar into the upper school, among a crowd of boys, who scramble for the pancake

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 237; Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, col. 260. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Ludlow Rope-pulling No longer kept ShropshireOn Shrove Tuesday the Ludlow corporation handed a thick rope, thirty-six yards long, out of a window of the Market Hall at four o'clock.
Lent Crocking No longer kept Dorset, WiltshireIn Dorset and Wiltshire boys went shroving in small bands, armed with the year's broken crockery.
Holly Boy and Ivy Girl No longer kept KentLate in the eighteenth century a Kentish village kept a Shrovetide custom in two halves.
Threshing the Hen No longer kept Cornwall, WalesA hen that had not laid before Shrove Tuesday was counted useless.
Barring Out the Master No longer kept CumberlandAt Fasten's Even the scholars of the free school at Bromfield claimed an old right to shut their master out for three days.
The Ba’ of Scone No longer kept PerthshireChambers knew of no place where Shrovetide football was played with more energy than Scone, near Perth.

The Pancake Greaze

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