River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-06-12
Beating the Bounds.

We extract the following from a story
by Thomas Hughes (author of Tom
Browns ''Schooldays at Rugby'0, print
ed in ST. Nicholas. The story describes
the curious English ceremony called
Beating the Parish Bounds" both in
London and in the country.
Peter, Plump and Pip, the authors
three boy-characters, were three as active
young scamps as ever trod shoe-leather.
One day, they were having the liveliest
kind Of fun hunting rabbits with a ter
rier, when, in a dense copse, they came
upon curiously marked stone bedded in
the earth. Meeting on the road an old
fellow named CATER Giles, who was seat
ed on a heap of stones, his legs wide
apart, engaged IN breaking the bigger
ones with a long hammer, the boys
learned from him that their stone marked
the parish bounds. The old man was
easily persuaded to tell what he knew
about it, which, as Mr.. Hughes relates
it, was much as follows:
When he was little chap at the parish
school, they had holiday every year on
"Gang Monday He didn't just mind
when it came round, but somewhere
about Whitsuntidc. Well, on Gang Mon
day morning, all the boys went to the
churchyard, and there was the lords
steward with map, and the parish con
stable, and smart few men and women,
too, who had a mind to beat the bounds
'possessioning" (processionipg) they
called it, or some such name. He was
no scholar, but minded the name for all
that.
So the 'possessioners' started with the
steward in front and the constable ring
ing a bell, and the rest following in row.
They marched all around the parish, and
now an again the steward would stop,
and sometimes they drove stake or set
W stone like that one in the copse.
That was in places where there was a dis
pute about the parish line. Then they'd
use to catch boy or two and take him
by the arms and legs and bump him up
against the stone or tree, so as he should
remember the place afterward.
At the brook, too, along that part OF 1t
where the parish line struck it, and ran
down it for, might be, two or three fur
longs, there was a scramble to see who
should be pushed in to wade down. 1t
wasn't more than knee deep for any one
as knew which side to keep and where
to cross. But now and again some young
chap us didn't know would be in, and
they as knew called him wrong so as he
should 60 plump into the holes above his
middle, for all the folks to laugh at; and
sometimes they caught a boy and chucked
him in But the boys mostly were too
knowing, and kept away from the men
when they got near the brook.
There was deal of waste land too,
there, and the steward, he had an eye to
it all sure enough, as they went along, to
see that no poor man had run up a bit of
a plac for his iackass or pig, or fenced
round Il rood of taters or cabbages. He
minded one time when they came across
a bit Of Il sty as Israel Willis, tn, char
coal burner, had put up. and how at the
stewards bidding they had pulled 1T
down and chased Isriel's SOW and her
litter on the common. No, he knew
better now Israel had gone to the bad,
and ended in the county Jail all along oil
that business. Twas no business Of
their'n to help clear the lords waste, and
now twas all took in and fenced off these
forty wear, and no man the better but the
lord, and no place left for poor folk to
cit bit of fuTZe, or turn out goose OF a
pig. or pick few bits of stick for tlre. |
Then on Gang Mondays when they got |
back. there was bread and cheese and ale |
for all. and buns and glass ofale for the
bows. and the bells ringing all the after
noon. and two shilliDgss apiece for the
ringers. He had heard tell of piece Of
land called Gang Mondays land, as was
left in old times to pay for beating the
rarish bounds. What had come of that
now? there was no holiday, nor bread and
cheese and ale. nor buns nor bell-ringing !
So old Giles crooned on, breaking a |
stone now and then with a whaek Of his
whip to ease his feelings, and glad of such
attentive listeners to his budget of old
stories and grievances, as the boys were
proving themselves to be.
They sat about him all ears, till the
in the distance struck five
and warned them Of teatime at the vicar
age. Then they jumped up and hurried