In earlier times, the feast may have taken place over Saturday and Sunday, as there appears to have been a Mop Fair held at the same time under the Mop Tree on the Common (Painswick Beacon), The Mop Fair was the traditional occasion at the end of the agricultural year when labours were hired for the next season.

Feast Day on the Sunday is associated with the Clypping Service - Clypping being an old word meaning embracing. At 3pm young people join hands to form a continuous circle around the outside of the church. Once formed the service begins and at intervals everyone takes two steps towards the church then two steps back, while singing a special Clypping hymn. After the service all the children are given a freshly made currant bun. The service was held at infrequent intervals until 1897 when the then vicar, Reverend Seddon, made it an annual event.

The Pie
The first written record about the baking of a pie was by Mrs Gomme in 1897(2). She discovered that it was a general custom to eat a pie in which the china figure of a dog had been baked. The pies were made at home and could contain either meat or fruit; what was necessary was that it should contain a china dog often with smaller dogs, one for each person.

Fig.1: Puppy-Dog Pie

She had great difficulty in finding a china dog. Oral tradition suggests that they were poorly made and usually broke after baking. This may account for a larger china dog being placed on the top of the cooked pie (Fig 1). The dogs could be bought in a toy shop in Painswick.

When Mrs Gomme enquired of an old man living in the town as to how the custom had started she was given the following three versions.

The first - Painswick had long had a feud with Stroud and they were frequently referred to as 'Gothamites'(3). A group of Gothamites came to Painswick and ordered a meat pie from the landlord of a tavern, This was duly prepared, but unfortunately got eaten by mistake by some other people who had not ordered it. As there was no more meat at the butchers, a dog was slaughtered and made into a pie for them. Later when the group realised that they had eaten a dog, a fight arose and the Painswick men won. This gave rise to celebrating the victory on Feast Day by baking and eating a pie. From then on Painswickians were called 'Bow-Wows', or dog eaters by people from Stroud.

The second - at the Lamb Inn in Bisley Street, many navvies were lodged while engaged on the making of the new turnpike road from Cheltenham to Bath in 1819(4). They were a terror to all and especially to their landlady. It was their boast that they could eat her out of house and home. She decided to rid herself of them. On Feast Day she made a pie of dog's flesh; and when the navvies had eaten it she told them what they had for dinner, with the result they left. However, the stigma that Painswick people ate dogs remained and all that was required to start a fight was to say "bow-wow" or to imitate a bark in Painswick.

The third - Stroud people were invited to a venison feast in Painswick, but no deer could be caught and dogs were used instead. When the trick discovered there was a tremendous fight. Painswick won and continued to commemorate it with dog pie on Feast Day.

Sir Francis Hyett(5) provided a history of the dog pie in his 1928 book on Painswick. He stated that the custom of eating a plum pie on Feast Sunday, in which a small china dog had been baked was generally practised between 1870 and 1880. After that it had tended to die out. He then goes on to give the three versions of the origin of the tradition given by Mrs Gomme.

In a recent book June Lewis(6) retells the story given her by Mrs Perrin an elderly native of the town, It involved a long standing feud between the youths of Painswick and those of Whiteshill, they fought regularly on Rudge Hill. One night the Painswick lads called a truce and as a token they invited the Whiteshill youths to a feast which included meat pies made specially for them. The Whiteshill lads were then told the pies were made from dogs. This provoked a fight which continued the feud.

Another version appeared in 1923 in the Wonder Book children's annual(7). This was that many years ago there lived in a Cotswold village two sisters, each of whom had a lover. The young men, however dwelt at a long distance and could only visit their sweethearts occasionally. When they did come they had a very good time, for, to show what splendid housewives they would make, the sisters used to bake all kinds of cakes and pies. One day a tale was spread that although the youths visited the sisters and enjoyed their cakes and pies, they were really in love with two maidens in another village. On hearing this the sisters were very angry and plotted revenge. When next the suitors called they were given a splendid meal which included a wonderful meat pie. The youths ate several helpings and asked for the recipe. Whereupon the sisters told them that the news of their unfaithfulness had reached them and the pie was baked as an act of revenge. Its chief ingredient being two puppy dogs. The young men fled, never to return. But still once a year the villagers have a fruit pie in which are placed enough small china puppies one for each helping with a large dog placed on top, in memory of the first Bow-Wow Pie.

This latter version I believe is based on the Painswick tradition but has been modified to hide the location and to make it more acceptable for a children's book. It has the same general theme that a group or individuals have been put at a disadvantage and have triumphed over their advisories. Most often it is the youths of Stroud who are the enemy that Painswick has to beat. This rivalry took other forms such as that between Saint Mary's church Painswick and Saint Laurence's Stroud where every time one or the other hung another bell in the tower so the other followed, at present Painswick has fourteen. Also the rivalry continued with number of peals that were rung in a day. These contests could last for hours with the Ancient Society of Painswick Youths (founded in 1686), as the ringers are called, taking it in turns to refresh themselves in the Falcon across the road.

Fig. 2: Clypping ceremony banner with Puppy-Dog Pie motifs

Origins
The Reverend Seddon(8), attempted to place the tradition of the Feast Day and the puppy-dog pie back in Roman times. His logic was that Painswick was until the 13th century called Wick or Wyke(9), which he claimed derives from the Latin Vicus, a village or settlement. At that time he suggested the Cotswolds were open sheep country and the sheep were preyed on by wolves living in the beechwoods along the valley sides. To obtain divine protection, the local Romans held a festival dedicated to this purpose called Lupercalia, the Festival of the Wolf God, the Lycian Pan, who warded off wolves from the flocks. The festivals involved a sacrifice of young dogs as well as goats; and the youths who acted as the priests, Luperci, dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed goats. He then drew similarities with Painswick's Feast and Clypping: a young peoples event, youths encircling the pagan altar at feast. The ritual was Christianised by Pope Gelasius in AD 494 into the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I think that this is pushing folk memory too far. It is possible that the eleven serfs in the 1086 Domesday Book's entry for Painswick(10) were descended from a Romano-British population but after so many centuries it seems highly unlikely that any rituals or festivals would have survived. The feast may have developed from the Anglo-Saxon season of harvest, when crops were gathered(11), a time coinciding with the Holy month September. However, this is also pure speculation. I have been unable to find any references to the feast before the early 19th century.

I consider that the nearest that it is possible to get to the source for Painswick's puppy-dog pie is in the account given by Mrs Gomme concerning the Irish navvies. In it the Feast pie is already an established fact, and it is dated earlier than in any other account by the reference to the building of the toll road to Cheltenham.

The Present
The oral traditions of Bow-Wow Pie continue to the present. Mr David Archard told me that his mother made a plum pie for Painswick Feast day when he was a boy and other families also carried on making them. In 2000 the Thirties Kids, (Painswickians who were at school in the thirties), had a banner made for themselves to carry at the Clypping ceremony. The banner depicts dogs and the pie. It hangs in the Lower Townhall during the rest of the year (Fig 2). In 2002 the organisers of the Victorian Street Market which is held in July each year arranged with Tesco to bake a huge plum pie which was about 1.4m x 1m (4½ft by 3ft). This was paraded on a horse drawn wagon accompanied by four school children dressed as dogs sitting behind the pie. The event will be held again this year. There is a skittles team called the Bow-Wows in the town and often at Rugby matches barks and catcalls may be heard from supporters of the rival teams. So it continues.

Acknowledgement
I am grateful to David Archard for his information on the continuation of the tradition in recent years.

References

1. SEDDON, W 11. Painswick Feast. Its origin and meaning Leaflet. 1921.
2. GOMME, A B. 'Painswick Dog-Pie' Folk-Lore. 1897. V111. Miscellanea, 390-392.
3. A 'Gothamite' was a simpleton, (Oxford English Dictionary)
4. MINAL, P. 'Painswick Roads, Ancient and Modern'. Painswick Chronicle. 1998. 2. 14,
5. HYATT, F A. Glimpses of the History of Painswick. 1928. 110­ 112.
6. LEWIS, J. The Cotswolds - Life and Traditions. 96.
7. GOLDING, H. (Ed). The Wonder Book. London. Ward, Lock & Co 1923. 261-263.
8. ref 1
9. BAILEY, J 'Origin of the Name of Painswick'. Painswick Chronicle. 1997.2, 14.
10. MOORE, J S. 'Painswick', The Domesday Book (15, Gloucestershire). Chichester, Phillimore. 1982. 39.8
11. SERMON, R. 'The Celtic Calendar and the Anglo-Saxon Year'. Glevensis. 2002. 34,42-44,