THE PENNY HEDGE.--The formality of planting the penny hedge in the bed of the River Esk, on Ascension Eve, was performed on Wednesday last by Mr. Isaac Herbert, who has for fifty years discharged this _onerous_ duty. The “nine stakes,” “the nine strout-stowers,” and the “nine gedders” have all been once more duly “planted.” The ceremony was witnessed by a number of ladies and gentlemen, and that highly important functionary, the bailiff of the lord of the manor, Mr. George Welburn, of Fylingdales, was present, and blew the usual malediction, “Out on you! Out on you! Out on you!” through the same identical horn which seventeen centuries ago roused with its lugubrious notes, on Ascension Eve, our ancestors from their peaceful slumbers. Whether the wood was cut at the “stray head,” and with a “knife of a penny price,” we are not able to say, but a good hedge was planted; and although each stake may not be quite “a yard from another,” the hedge will doubtless be of such strength as to withstand the effect of the prescribed number of tides.--See Young’s _History of Whitby_. Some time in the spring, says a writer in the _Gent. Mag._ (1790, vol. lx. p. 719), I think the day before Holy Thursday, all the Clergy, attended by the singing men and boys of the choir, perambulate the town (Ripon) in their canonicals, singing hymns, and the blue-coat charity-boys follow singing, with green boughs in their hands. APRIL 30.] ASCENSION DAY. In England Ascension Day has been known as “Bounds Thursday,” from beating the bounds of the parish, transferred by a corruption of Rogation processions to this day.--_Kalendar of English Church_, 1865, p. 72. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. In the parish of Edgcott there was about an acre of land, let at 3_l._ a year, called “Gang Monday land,” which was left to the parish officers to provide cakes and beer for those who took part in the annual perambulation of the parish. At Clifton Reynes, in the same county, a bequest of land for a similar purpose directs that one small loaf, a piece of cheese, and a pint of ale should be given to every married person, and half a pint of ale to every unmarried person resident in Clifton, when they walked the parish boundaries in Rogation Week.--_Old English Customs and Charities_, pp. 120, 122. CHESHIRE. Pennant, in his _Tour from Chester to London_ (1811, p. 40), tells us that on Ascension Day the old inhabitants of Nantwich piously sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the blessing of the Brine. A very ancient pit, called the Old Brine, was also held in great veneration, and till within these few years was annually on this festival decked with flowers and garlands, and was encircled by a jovial band of young people, celebrating the day with song and dance. Aubrey (in _MS. Lansd._ 231) says, in Cheshire, when they went in perambulation, they did blesse the springs, i.e. they did read a gospel at them, and did believe the water was the better.