Diary of Samuel Pepys
10th June 1667

"in the afternoon took boat and down to Greenwich, where I find the stairs full of people, there being a great riding there to-day for a man, the constable of the town, whose wife beat him"

Samuel Pepys

Note by Lord Baybrooke,1893 edition of Pepy's Diary, commenting on this passage:

"It was an ancient custom in Berkshire, when a man had beaten his wife, for the neighbours to parade in front of his house, for the purpose of serenading him with kettles, and horns and hand-bells, and every species of 'rough music,' by which name the ceremony was designated. Perhaps the riding mentioned by Pepys was a punishment somewhat similar. "

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