interior of eight or ten houses inspected, the wall of the Independent Chapel, Angel Street, scaled, and the Crown yard reached, when another drenching shower slightly damped the ardour of the borderers; but, like Cromwell's Invincibles, armed to the teeth with pluck, on they went, through Mr. Loxley's house and back premises, down Powick Lane, through Tanner's yard, and so back to the vestry, where progress was duly recorded in the books. We should not omit to state that the chaplain, who accompanied the party, had done his best to turn the old ceremony to good account, by delivering appropriate addresses, &c., at various points on the line of route. On again emerging from the vestry, a final salutation was given to the explorers by the assembled crowd, in which the policemen got thoroughly rinsed; a worthy Boniface, known as "The old fellow," was prostrated to the ground, in which position he shouted most piteously, "Blow me if I ain't blinded;" and an overseer was so roughly handled, that his usual amiable temper became ruffled, and he swore a deadly oath, that if they gave him three months for it, he would punch the head of the first fellow he caught. The boys were treated to a scrambling for pence, and so ended the out-door performances. After the fatigues of the day, a jolly party of about twenty-five sat down to dinner at Mr. Hill's, the Herefordshire House, Newport Street, whose admirable catering soon made them forget the mishaps of the morning, and a very pleasant evening was spent. The St. Clement's officials (Mr. Bozward, churchwarden, Messrs. Spilsbury and Fenn, overseers) and a number of the parishioners, armed with a flag and a bough of oak, took to the water like ducks, from Tearne's meadow, near the Dog and Duck, passed down the middle of the Severn to the Watermen's Chapel, where they landed to take in a part of the Cattle Market and the site of the old parish church; embarked once more, passed the Rubicon of the centre arch of the bridge, landed on the west side of the river, opposite the Cathedral, and performed all the remainder by land. The usual ablutions, bedaubings, scramblings, and so forth, were not forgotten. Afterwards the party dined at the very comfortable hostelry of the Dog and Duck. A word or two on the origin of the above old ceremony may not be misplaced here. We find that formerly it was the custom to go round the bounds and limits of the parish on one of the three days before Holy Thursday, or the feast of Ascension, when the minister, accompanied by the churchwardens and parishioners, was wont to deprecate the vengeance of God, beg a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and to preserve the rights and properties of the parish. To this Wither alludes in his "Emblems" (1636), as follows: