A Skimmington - known as a Skimmety in Devon - was a procession through a village to express its disapproval, commonly of the actions of one or both of a married couple. Often accompanied by raucous music and so known as giving the couple the Rough Music, it was relatively commonplace in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, and has been interestingly treated of by E.P. Thompson in Customs in Common. Below is an engraving of such an event, by Hogarth.
Roger Hannaford - Rev.Baring-Gould collected several songs from this popular old man, who lived at Lower Town, Widecombe.