On _Ash Wednesday_ in each parish church, before the celebration of Mass, ashes were blessed, and each man, woman, and child came and knelt before their priest to have them strewn upon their heads, whilst his words reminded them that they “were dust, and unto dust they would return.” After the distribution of the ashes, according to an ancient English custom, if there were another church in the same district, all the people went to it in procession, and, having made there “a stay,” or _statio_, for prayer, returned to their own church for Mass. With Ash Wednesday began the strict fast of Lent, which had to be kept on all days except Sundays; and even then no meat was permitted. On the week-days the fast was not allowed to be broken till after Mass and Vespers had been said in the parish church; that is, before eleven or twelve o’clock. The Anglo-Saxon _Ecclesiastical Institutes_ speaks of those days of Lent as “the tithing-days of the year,” which all good Christians should render to God most strictly. “Every Sunday at this holy tide,” says the same authority, “people should go to housel,” a practice which was not preserved in the later middle ages. The time of Lent was also known as the “holy time,” and unnecessary and distracting business was as far as possible avoided. Thus, for instance, the assizes were prohibited during the whole period. THE LENTEN CURTAIN.--From the evening before the first Sunday of Lent till the Thursday before Easter, what was known as the “Lenten curtain,” or “Lenten veil,” hung down in all parish churches between the chancel and the nave. It was one of the “ornaments” which the parishioners were bound to provide, and the churchwardens’ accounts contain many references to it, both as to its provision and as to the expenses of erection. It was made of white stuff or linen, and hid the sanctuary from the people, except at the reading of the Gospel and until the _Orate Fratres_, when it was pulled aside. It was also drawn back on all feast days kept during Lent. The order that the confessions of women should be heard “outside the veil,” in the sight of all but out of hearing, refers to the Lenten veil. “The veil,” says the _Liber Festivalis_, “that all the Lent has been drawn between the altar and the choir betokeneth the prophecy of Christ’s Passion, which was hidden and unknown till these days.” But in these three last days of Holy Week it “is done away (with), and the altar openly schowed to all men; for on these days Christ suffered openly His Passion.”