DUNMOW, Great, a market-town of England, in Essex, situated on a via militaris, some remains of which still exist. It consists of two good streets, built on an acclivity near the right bank of the Chelmer, 40 miles north-east of London by rail. Its public buildings include a town hall and a literary institute, besides the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, recently restored. Population in 1871, 2983. Two miles to the east is the village of Little Dunmow (population, 359), formerly the seat of a priory remarkable for the custom of presenting a flitch of bacon to any couple who could satisfy a jury of six bachelors and six maidens that they had spent the first year of married life in perfect harmony, and had never at any moment wished they had tarried. The institution of this strange matrimonial prize—which had its parallel at Whichanoure (or Winchnor) in Staffordshire, at St Meleine in Brittany, and apparently also at Vienna—appears to date from the reign of John; and the only instances recorded of its award occurred in 1445, 1467, 1701,1751, and 1763. A revival of the custom was effected in 1855 by Mr Harrison Ainsworth, but the scene of the ceremony was transferred to the town-hall of Great Dunmσw. For details see Chambers’s Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 748-751; and W. Andrews, History of the Dunmou) Flitch of Bacon Customs, 1877.