Advent was celebrated in some places by the ringing of the bells, usually, but not invariably, in the evening; the reason for this being that the ringers were at work during the day, and therefore it could only be done when the hours of labour were ended. On S. Thomas's Day the bells were often rung; and it was a very widely spread, though not a universal, custom to ring them very early on the morn of Christmas Day. In the Kirton-in-Lindsey churchwardens' account we see what the ringers obtained for so doing in 1630:--"It' given to the Ringers at Christenmaise day at morne xij{d}." The bells are, or were until lately, rung at five o'clock on Christmas morning at South Kelsey. In various parts of England they were rung in a great variety of ways during Lent and upon Good Friday; on Easter Sunday, too, there has always been great divergence as to the custom of bell-ringing. The Banns Peal is still to be heard in some places; this is a peal rung after the publication of banns of marriage, it is usually chimed after morning service on the first Sunday that the banns are "put up," but this is by no means the universal practice, in some parishes it is rung on the first and third Sundays, in others on the third alone, and it varies yet again at Elsham and Searby, where it is given upon all three Sundays. Peals at Baptism are much rarer, but still there are parishes where it has been from time unknown usual to ring them. The curfew is yet to be heard in many places, though the hour varies, it being often rung at nine, and in some instances at seven o'clock, instead of at eight. In pre-Reformation times the Passing Bell, instead of being rung as it now is after death, was then really and truly a "passing-bell," for it was heard when a person was supposed to be at the point of death, in order that those in whose ears it sounded might of their charity pray for a soul so soon to be beyond human help. After the spirit had returned unto Him who gave it, the Soul Bell was rung, that the living might pray for the dead; this soul-bell, besides being rung a few hours after death, was sounded again at stated intervals, at the month's end, the three months' end, and so on. Surtees, the northern antiquary, alludes to this custom in the ballad of _Sir John le Spring_:-- "Pray for the soul of Sir John le Spring, When the black monks sing and the chantry bells ring. Pray for the sprite of the murdered knight, Pray for the rest of Sir John le Spring. * * * * * And aye the mass-priest sings his song, And patters many a prayer, And the chantry bell tolls loud and long, And aye the lamp burns there." There are numerous ways of indicating the age and sex of the departed by the manner in which the passing-bell is tolled; we have been informed that in Lincolnshire alone there are between seventy and eighty different methods by which this is done.