By way of accessories, the customs of "whipping" and "bumping" gradually came to form part of the perambulation ceremony. In order that the boundaries of the parishes might be indelibly impressed on the minds of the younger portion of the community, it was deemed advisable to bump some promising boy painfully against the boundary stones; or better still, to publicly whip him while he strove to impress on his memory the exact position of the same land-marks. As a set off against this public humiliation, the boys had a present of money given to them, and accordingly there appears an entry in the Chelsea parish books, in 1670, as follows:-- "Given to the boys that were whipt, 4s."[20] The process of "bumping" has been carried on until quite recently, for on June 8th, 1881, the _Guardian_ reported a case in which three men who were engaged in "Beating the Bounds" were fined £5 each for forcibly "bumping" the senior curate of Hanwell. They met the curate and "asked him to go and be 'bumped.' Upon his declining, two of the defendants took hold of his arms and dragged him to the stone, one of the party taking him by the leg and lifting him bodily from the ground. On reaching the stone, they 'bumped' him against a man." It would take too long to mention all the numerous observances which still linger on in various places in connection with this ancient and interesting custom. In most parishes where it is still kept up, the ceremony is performed annually on Ascension Day. A friend of the writer thus describes the way in which it is carried out in one of the outlying districts of London:-- "We assembled, by invitation, at the Vestry Hall, about 10 o'clock a.m. I should think there were thirty or forty gentlemen present, including the rector, churchwardens, and various officers of the parish, and about the same number of schoolboys. The gentlemen wore rosettes, and carried rods, and the boys were provided with long willow wands decked with blue ribbons. The parish beadle, carrying the mace, marched in front. When we came to any of the boundary stones of the parish, they were duly examined to see if they were in their proper position, and then the boys gave three cheers, and beat them with their wands. We marched through private houses and warehouses, over walls, ditches, canals, etc., and were taken down the river in a barge, until at last we came to our starting-point again about 4-30 in the afternoon. The churchwardens then presented each of the boys with a new shilling and dismissed them." In these days of ordnance maps, there may be very little practical utility in "Beating the Bounds," but as Wordsworth says:-- "Many precious relics And customs of our rural ancestry Are gone or stealing from us."