Dog-rappers. 89 
continued for another three nights, and then resumed again for 
three other nights, and then it concludes. 
This is a different procession from that called the “Skimming- 
_ ton,” which takes place when a woman beats her husband. 
When I was quite a boy I saw a Skimmington in Gloucester- 
shire; the principal group in the procession being a stuffed figure 
of a man placed on horseback, behind whom rode a man in 
woman’s clothes, who, as the procession went on, kept beating the 
stuffed figure about the head with a wooden ladle. 
I believe that a Skimmington is represented in one of the illustra- 
tions to Hudibras, and is described in part ii. canto 2, of that work. 
The Wiltshire people called the Wooset procession a “oset,’’ as 
they never pronounce w before o, calling wood ‘‘ood,” and the like. 
5.—DOG-RAPPERS. 
In the reign of King Charles the first, there was one of these 
now obsolete and almost forgotten officers of the church at Ogbourn 
St. George. 
In an old churchwarden’s account book of that parish, (which 
has been mislaid within these last few years,) there are the follow- 
ing entries :— 
“©1632. To Looker for whipinge the doggs out of the 
Church for one quarter .........,...,.. xijd, 
1633. To Looker for keepinge out doggs a whole yeare _ itijs. 
1639. To Looker for keepinge the doggs &c......... ijs- 
Payde to Looker for keepinge the doggs out of the 
QUMCOM rite ceathens mb emtteate ee oh ce meee ee ijs.”” 
Payments of 4s. a year to Looker occur in other years, but the 
entries do not state for what service those payments were made. 
When I first saw these entries, I did not quite understand their 
meaning, but on my mentioning them to Mr. Gray, the magistrate 
N 
