[40] Hutchins says this _beson_ or _byzant_ was so richly adorned with plate and jewels, borrowed from the neighbouring gentry, as to be worth no less than 1500_l._--_History of Dorset_, 1803, vol. ii. p. 425. Latterly, however, the festival sadly degenerated, and in the year 1830, the town and the manor passing into the hands of the same proprietor, it ceased altogether, and is now one of those many observances which are numbered with the past. If this had not happened, however, the necessity for it no longer exists. The ancient borough is no longer indebted to the lord of the manor for its water, for, through the liberality of the Marquis of Westminster, its present owner, the town is bountifully supplied with the purest water from an artesian well sunk at his expense.--_The Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 585; Hutchins, _History of Dorset_, 1803, vol. ii. p. 425. KENT. In Rogation week, about Keston and Wickham, a number of young men meet together and with a most hideous noise run into the orchards, and, encircling 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 this 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 ancient one of perambulation among the heathen, 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 Æolus, god of the winds, for his favourable blasts, so in this custom they still retained his name with a very small variation: this ceremony is called _youling_, and the word is often used in their invocations.--Hasted, _History of Kent_, vol. i. p. 109. OXFORDSHIRE. At Stanlake, says Plot, the minister of the parish, in his procession in Rogation Week, reads the Gospel at a barrel’s head, in the cellar of the Chequer Inn, in that town, where, according to some, there was formerly a hermitage, according to others a cross, at which they read a Gospel in former times; over which the house, and particularly the cellar, being built, they are forced to continue the custom.--_History of Oxfordshire_, 1705, p. 207. STAFFORDSHIRE.