To save one's Bacon

May I venture to suggest that this phrase has reference to the custom at Dunmow, in Essex, of giving a flitch of bacon to any married couple residing in the parish, who live in harmony for a year and a day. A man and his wife who stopped short when on the verge of a quarrel might be said to have "just saved their bacon;" and in course of time the phrase would be applied to any one who barely escaped any loss or danger.