The National Register.
London, England, 1822-09-15 00:00:00

PaurroN Gmo.—...Thie festival is perfectly
—unique, there being no other of the kind in the king-
dom; it may be proper, therefore, shortly to explain
its object and origin. The institution is of the
standing of five centuries, and is confirmed by char-
ters granted by Edward 111., Richard I t , and
Charles 11., whereby the burgesses were anciently
enabled to hold certain pleas of land, Jtz., within
their own precincts, and are now required to renew
their claims to the rights, privileges, and freedom,
which belong to them in virtue of their charter,
which franchises devolve every twenty years into
the hands of the Mayor and Corporation, and be-
come extinct if not renewed at these periods. It
appears from the record of the borough, that there
have been 20 Guilds in five hundred years : that
in the two first centuries they were held at irre-
gular periods, bet since that time, beginning with
the teign of Henry VIII., they have been cele-
brated regularly without intermission, every twenty
years. In the times when Guilds were instituted,
it was the practice to commit all great affairs, spi-
ritual and secular, to the guardianship of some
particular Saint ; in conformity with this super.
*titian, Preston Guild was placed under the patro-
nage of St. John thr Baptist, and this King of feasts
always begins the Monday next after the decollation
of the Baptist. There was formerly in the city of
York, and other ancient English cities, u Gilds Met.-
catoria, or Guild Merchant, held by Royal Charter,
at which it is probable that pageants, similar to
those exhibited every 20 years at Preston, w,:re per-
formed: but in Yomk this ceremony gave way to
the sacred drama of Corpus Christi, performed an-
nually in the public Streets by the fraternities of
that city, and of which so circumstantial and ex-
traordinary un account is to be found in the Ap-
pendix to Drake's Eboracum. At Preston, time has
diminished nothing of the splendour of this ancient
festival, which is enhanced in value by the rarity
of its recurrence, and of which the inclinations of
the native inhabitants, resident and non-resident,

dispose them to say esto perpetua.
'I he passage-vessels F.arl St. Vincent, Parkins, of
Saithaimpton, and Ant, Summers, of Cowes, whiCh
have long been in the habit of wearing navy colours, ,
had their pendants struck on Saturday last by the
tide surveyor, on entering Cowes harbour, and no-
tice given them that a repetition of the offence would
subj,ct each to a penalty of 5001 under the 2d see.
Sd Geo. IV. e I 10.
PILCHARD FISMERY.—Before the rising of the
moon on Thursday evening last, two scans, belong-
ing to Mevagissey, shot upon some brimming fish,
and were supposed to have enclosed lOU mounds of
pilchards. The next morning, to their great dis•
appointment, they found the enclosure to consist of
from 40 to 50,000 mackarel. The circumstance,
however, gave rise to a hope, that a large (body of
pilchards were not f.r off; particularly as some fine
fish were taken by the driving buts on Friday
morning. The expectations of a successful season
have been nearly destroyed. The weather of last
week have been very unfavourable, and very few
fish have made their appearance in the mouth of the
channel. At St. lye's alone, there are ninety scans,
which for the last six years have occasioned to their
owners a heavy loss. A letter from Marazion of
the 4th September says, there arc about thirty scans
afloat in the Mount's Bay, which up to the time
had not caught more than 350 hogsheads, but that
the drift boats had been more than usually success-
ful, having taken on an average from 18 to 20 hogs-
sheads each.—Werlern Lunn:tarp.
We are concerned to hear that the typhus fever,
which was so fatal at the village of Eagle, near Lin-
coln, has not been eradicated, but is now equally
alarming in th. adjoining village of Bassingham—
live persons in the latter place have fallen victims to
it, and others are suffering dreadfully.
A great robbery was committed on the Ipswich
mail, coming to town, on Thursday morning. A
person inside the coach had the care of property,
from four different banks, to the amount of forty
thousand pounds, and having been obliged to leave
the coach tier one minute, the bag was stolen. One
thousand pounds reward was offered for the appre-
hension of the rubbers.
A widow woman named Wilson, at the advanced
age of seventy eight years, travelled from a village
in Westmorland, on a visit to her son, who is land-
lord of the king's Head public-house, in Mansfield
—The distance is taw hundred and eighty miles.
which she perfirrmed on foot in five days, making an
average of S 5 miles per day.
CRUELTY To ANIMALS —A person travelling
lately from Maidenhead to Marlow, saw lying in a
ditch on the edge of a common about two miles from
the former place, a bull, cruelly beaten about the
head, and a fire blazing under him 1 The flames
made the wretched animal move, otherwise the ob-
server would have considered him dead. The per-
son who opened a gate close by, said, in answer to
the inquiries made of him, that the bull was obsti-
. pute, auc.l that the drove; was paling him up l