annual procession by water in their barges, visiting the bounds of their jurisdiction on the river, to prevent encroachments. Cheerful libations are offered on the occasion to the Genius of our wealthy Flood, which Milton calls the "coaly Tyne :"

"The sable stores on whose majestic strand

More tribute yield than Tagus' golden sand."

In the Painted Hall at Greenwich Hospital the Genius of the Tyne is represented pouring forth his coal in great abundance. There is the Severn with her lampreys, and the Humber with his pigs of lead, which, with the Thames and Tyne, compose the four great rivers of England.

Heath, in his History of the Scilly Islands (1750), writes: "At Exeter, in Devon, the boys have an annual custom of damming-up the channel in the streets, at going the bounds of the several parishes in the city, and of splashing the water upon people passing by." "Neighbours as well as strangers are forced to compound hostilities, by giving the boys of each parish money to pass without ducking: each parish asserting its prerogative, in this respect."

The word Parochia, or Parish, anciently signified what we now call the diocese of a bishop. In the early ages of the Christian Church, as kings founded cathedrals, so great men founded parochial churches, for the conversion of themselves and their dependents; the bounds of the parochial division being commonly the same with those of the founder's jurisdiction. Some foundations of this kind were as early as the time of Justinian the Emperor. Before the reign of Edward the Confessor, the parochial divisions in this kingdom were so far advanced that every person might be traced to the parish to which he belonged. This appears by the Canons published in the time of Edgar and Canute. The distinction of parishes as they now stand appears to have been settled before the Norman Conquest. In Domesday Book the parishes agree very near to the modern division.

Camden tells us that this kingdom was first divided into parishes by Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 636, and counts 2984 parishes.

The Lateran Council made some such division as this. It compelled every man to pay tithes to his parish-priest. Men before that time payed them to whom they pleased; but, without being sarcastical, one might observe that since then it has happened that few, if they could be excused from doing it, would care to pay them at all.

The following is the account given of "Procession Weeke" and "Ascension Day," in Googe's Translation of the Regnum Papisticum of Naogeorgus—

"Now comes the day wherein they gad abrode, with Crosse in hande, To boundes of every field, and round about their neighbour's lande: And, as they go, they sing and pray to euery saint aboue,

But to our Ladie specially, whom most of all they loue.

When as they to the towne are come, the Church they enter in,

And boke what Saint that Church doth guide, they humbly pray to him,

That he preserve both corne and fruite from storme and tempest great,
And them defend from harme, and send them store of drinke and meat.
This done, they to the taverne go, or in the fieldes they dine,
Where downe they sit and feede a pace, and fill themselues with wine,
So much that oftentymes without the Crosse they come away,
And miserably they reele, till as their stomacke vp they lay.
These things three dayes continually are done, with solemne sport,
With many Crosses often they vnto some Church resort,

Whereas they all do chaunt alowde, wherby there streight doth spring,
A bawling noyse, while euery man seekes hyghest for to sing."-
"Then comes the day when Christ ascended to his father's seate,
Which day they also celebrate, with store of drinke and meate.*
Then every man some birde must eate, I know not to what ende,
And after dinner all to Church they come, and their attende.
The blocke that on the aultar still till then was seene to stande,
Is drawne vp hie aboue the roofe, by ropes, and force of hande :
The Priestes about it rounde do stand, and chaunt it to the skie,
For all these mens religion great in singing most doth lie.

Then out of hande the dreadfull shape of Sathan downe they throw,
Oft times, with fire burning bright, and dasht asunder tho,

* The following is from Hasted's History of Kent

"There is an odd custom used in these parts, about Keston and Wickham, in Rogation Week; at which time a number of young men meet together for the purpose, and with a most hideous noise, run into the orchards, and, incircling each tree, pronounce these words

"Stand fast root; bear well top;

God send us a youling sop,
Every twig apple big,

Every bough apple enow.'

For which incantation the confused rabble expect a gratuity in money, or drink, which is no less welcome; but if they are disappointed of both, they with great solemnity anathematize the owners and trees with altogether as insignificant a curse.

"It seems highly probable that this custom has arisen from the antient one of Perambulation among the Heathens, when they made prayers to the Gods for the use and blessing of the fruits coming up, with thanksgiving for those of the preceding year; and as the Heathens supplicated Eolus, God of the Winds, for his favourable blasts, so in this custom they still retain his name with a very small variation; this ceremony is called Youling, and the word is ofter used in their invocations."

Armstrong, in his History of Minorca (1752), speaking of the Terminalia feasts instituted by the Romans in honour of Terminus, the guardian of boun daries and landmarks, whose festival was celebrated at Rome on the 22d o 23d of February every year, when cakes and fruits were offered to the goo and sometimes sheep and swine, says: "He was represented under the figur of an old man's head and trunk to the middle without arms, which they erecte on a kind of pedestal that diminished downwards to the base, under whic they usually buried a quantity of charcoal, as they thought it to be incorruptil in the earth; and it was criminal by their laws, and regarded as an act impiety to this Divinity, to remove or deface any of the Termini. Nay, the visited them at set times, as the Children in London are accustomed to pera» bulate the limits of their Parish, which they call processioning; a custom pr bably derived to them from the Romans, who were so many ages in possessi

of the Island of Great Britain."

The boyes with greedie eyes do watch, and on him straight they fall,
And beate him sore with rods, and breake him into peeces small.
This done, the wafers downe doe cast, and singing Cakes the while,
With Papers rounde amongst them put, the children to beguile.
With laughter great are all things done: and from the beames they let
Great streames of water downe to fall, on whom they meane to wet.
And thus this solemne holiday, and hye renowmed feast,

And all their whole deuotion here is ended with a ieast."

The following customs, though not strictly applicable to Parochial Perambulations, can properly find a place nowhere but in this Section

"Shaftsbury is pleasantly situated on a hill, but has no water, except what the inhabitants fetch at a quarter of a mile's distance from the manour of Gillingham, to the lord of which they pay a yearly ceremony of acknowledgement, on the Monday before Holy Thursday. They dress up a garland very richly, calling it the Prize Besom, and carry it to the Manour-house, attended by a calf's-head and a pair of gloves, which are presented to the lord. This done, the Prize Besom is returned again with the same pomp, and taken to pieces; just like a milk-maid's garland on May Day, being made up of all the plate that can be got together among the housekeepers."-Travels of Tom Thumb.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland (1795), parish of Lanark, in the county of Lanark, we read of "the riding of the Marches, which is done annually upon the day after Whitsunday Fair by the Magistrates and Burgesses, called here the Landsmark or Langemark Day, from the Saxon langemark. It is evidently of Saxon origin, and probably established here in the reign of, or sometime posterior to, Malcolm I."

At Evesham in Worcestershire there was an ancient custom for the master-gardeners to give their work people a treat of baked peas, both white and grey (and pork), every year on Holy Thursday.

MAY-DAY CUSTOMS.

"If thou lovest me then,

Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,

To do observance to a morn of MAY,

There will I stay for thee."

Midsummer Night's Dream, act i. sc. 1.

was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a

time, in the villages in the North of England, the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a little after ses inight on the morning of that day, and, accompanied with music an felle blowing of horns, to walk to some neighbouring wood, where they i for s.down branches from the trees and adorned them with nosegays, crowns of flowers. This

done, they returned homewards with their booty about the time of sunrise, and made their doors and windows triumph in the flowery spoil. Thus Stubbs, in the Anatomie of Abuses, writes: "Against Maieevery parishe, towne, and village, assemble themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and yong, even all indifferently: and either goyng all together, or deuidyng themselves into companies, they goe some to the woodes and groves, some to the hilles and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, where they spende all the night in pastymes, and in the mornyng they returne, bringing with them birch, bowes, and braunches of trees, to deck their assemblies withall.” -"I have heard it credibly reported," he adds, "(and that viva voce) by men of great gravitie, credite, and reputation, that of fourtie, three score, or a hundred maides goyng to the woode ouer night, there have scarcely the thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled."

Hearne, in his Preface to Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, speaking of the old custom of drinking out of horns, observes: ""Tis no wonder, therefore, that upon the Follities on the first of May formerly, the custom of blowing with, and drinking in, HORNS so much prevailed, which, though it be now generally disus'd, yet the custom of blowing them prevails at this season even to this day, at Oxford, to remind people of the pleasantness of that part of the year, which ought to create mirth and gayety, such as is sketch'd out in some old Books of Offices, such as the Prymer of Salisbury, printed at Rouen, 1551, 8vo." Aubrey, in his Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme, says: "Memorandum, at Oxford the boys do blow cows horns and hollow canes all night; and on May Day the young maids of every parish carry about garlands of flowers, which afterwards they hang up in their churches."

Henry Rowe, in a note in his Poems, says: "The Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, erected by Cardinal Wolsey, when bursar of the College (A.D. 1492), contains a musical peal of ten bells, and on May Day the Choristers assemble on the top to usher in the Spring."* [Dr Chandler however, in his Life of Bishop Waynflete, assures us that Wolsey ha no share in the erection of the structure: and Chalmers, in his Histor of the University, refers the origin of the custom to a mass of requiem which, before the Reformation, used to be annually performed on th top of the Tower, for the soul of Henry VII. "This was after wards commuted," he observes, "for a few pieces of musick, whic are executed by the Choristers, and for which the Rectory of Slim bridge, in Gloucestershire, pays annually the sum of £10."]

In Herrick's Hesperides are the following allusions to customs o May Day

"Come, my Corinna, come: and comming, marke
How each field turns a street; each street a park
Made green and trimmed with trees: see how
Devotion gives each house a bough,

Or branch: each por h, each doore, ere this,
An arke, a tabernhild is

Made up of white-whio, neatly enterwove."

"A deale of youth, ere this, is come
Back, and with white-thorne laden home,

Some have dispatch'd their cakes and creame,
Before that we have left to dreame."

There was a time when this custom was observed by noble and royal personages, as well as the vulgar. Thus we read, in Chaucer's Court of Love, that early on May Day "fourth goth al the Court, both most and lest, to fetche the flouris fresh, and braunch, and blome."

It is on record that King Henry VIII. and Queen Katherine partook of this diversion; and historians also mention that he and his courtiers, in the beginning of his reign, rose on May Day very early to fetch May, or green boughs, and that they went, with their bows and arrows, shooting to the wood.

Stow, in his Survey of London, quotes from Hall an account of Henry VIII.'s riding a Maying from Greenwich to the high ground of Shooter's-hill, with Queen Katherine his wife, accompanied with many Lords and Ladies. He tells us also that "on May Day in the morning, every man, except impediment, would walke into the sweete meadowes and greene woods, there to rejoyce their spirites with the beauty and savour of sweete flowers, and with the harmony of birds, praysing God in their kind."-"I finde also," he adds, "that in the moneth of May, the citizens of London of all estates, lightly in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joyning togither, had their severall Mayings, and did fetch in May-poles, with diverse warlike shewes, with good archers, morice-dauncers, and other devices, for pastime all the day long, and towards the evening they had stageplayes, and bonefires in the streetes. Of these Mayings we reade, in the raigne of Henry the Sixt, that the aldermen and shiriffes of London being, on May Day, at the Bishop of London's wood, in the parish of Stebunheath, and having there a worshipfull dinner for themselves and other commers, Lydgate the Poet, that was a monke of Bery, sent to them by a pursiuant a joyfull commendation of that season, containing sixteen staves in meter roiall, beginning thus

"Mightie Flora, Goddesse of fresh flowers,
Which clothed hath the soyle in lustie greene,
Made buds spring, with her sweete showers,
By influence of the sunne-shine.

To doe pleasance of intent full cleane,
Vnto the States which now sit here,

Hath Vere downe sent her owne daughter deare.”

of Maie," not only houses ers, but “in some places Romaynes, that use the The ceremonies, whom

Polydore Vergil says that "at the Calendas and gates were garnished with boughs and floweegg the Churches, whiche fashion is derived of the 1 same to honour their goddesse Flora with they named Goddesse of Fruites."

suc, of

fusio

History of Reading,

of the same, mete

A.D. 1504, we have: "It. payed for felling and In an account of parish expenses in Coates's hthyngy'g home of the bow (bough) set in the M'cat-place, for settyng uj byceleb

and drinke, viii.”