DUNMORE

dunmore, a borough of lackawanna county, pennsylvania, u.s.a., adjoining scranton on the n.e. and about 20 m. n.e. of wilkesbarre. pop. (1890) 8315; (1900) 12,583, of whom 3103 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 17,615. it is served by the erie, the delaware, lackawanna & western, and the lackawanna & wyoming valley (electric) railways. its chief industry is the mining of anthracite coal; the principal establishments are railway repair shops, which in 1905 gave employment to 48.9% of all wage-earners engaged in manufacturing. among the borough's manufactures are stoves and furnaces, malt liquors and silk. dunmore is the seat of the state oral school for the deaf. the town was first settled in 1783 and was incorporated in 1862. its growth was accelerated by the establishment here, in 1863, of the shops of the railway from pittston to hawley built in 1849-1850 by the pennsylvania coal company. dunmore became a station of the scranton post office in 1902. dunmow (properly great dunmow), a market town in the epping (w.) parliamentary division of essex, england, on the river chelmer, 40 m. n.e. by n. from london on a branch of the great eastern railway. pop. (1901) 2704. the church of st mary is decorated and perpendicular. the town was corporate from the 16th century until 1886. roman remains have been discovered. two miles e. is the village of little dunmow, formerly the seat of a priory, remarkable for the custom of presenting a flitch of bacon to any couple who could give proof that they had spent the first year of married life in perfect harmony, and had never at any moment wished they had tarried. in place of the monastic judicature a jury of six bachelors and six maidens appear in the 16th century. a rhyming oath, quoted by fuller, was taken. the institution of this strange matrimonial prize--which had its parallel at whichanoure (or wichnor) in staffordshire, at st moleine in brittany, and apparently also at vienna--appears to date from the reign of john. the first instance of its award recorded is in 1445, and there are a few others. but there are references which suggest its previous award in _piers plowman_ and chaucer. the chaucerian couplet conveys the idea of an award to a patient husband, without reference to the wife. a revival of the custom was effected in 1855 by harrison ainsworth, author of the novel _the flitch of bacon_, but the scene of the ceremony was transferred to the town hall of great dunmow. it has since been maintained in altered form. (for details see chambers's _book of days_, ii. 748-751; and w. andrews, _history of the dunmow flitch of bacon customs_, 1877.) close to little dunmow is felsted (q.v.) or felstead; and easton lodge (with a railway station), a seat of the earl of warwick, is in the vicinity.