E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Manningtree (Essex).
Noted for its Whitsun fair, where an ox was roasted whole. Shakespeare makes Prince Henry call Falstaff “a roasted Manningtree ox, with the pudding in his belly.” (1 Henry IV. ii. 4.)
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“You shall have a slave eat more at a meale than ten of the guard; and drink more in two days than all Manningtree does at a Witsun-ale.”
