The Springdale news., 1889-10-18
OLD LONDON CUSTOMS.
The English Metropolis n yeritabIe Strong hold of Antiquated Observsnces.

hold of Antiquated Observances.
 The majority of people, if asked where in England they would search with the best chance of success for the existence of old-time customs and obseryanccs, would probably name the extreme north and the extreme west of our island. At any rate, We feel assured that very few would point to the city of London. Yet, strange as it may seem, while the country has become terribly prosaie and common place in these matters, while the old songs and the old sports have died out, and the old customs have been discon- tinued as ill asserting with an age of progress, the city of London is a yer- itable stronghold of customs and ob- seryances which have long since been banished from Arcadia.
 To begin with the city churches, to which just now more intelligent at tention is being drawn than they have enjoyed ever since the city ceased to be q place of residence, there are ser mons preached in them upon special occasions for the origin of many of which we must go back q long way in our history; and there are customs practiced in connection with them of which in many eases the origin is abso- lutely unknown. On St. Paul's Day, for instance, d sermon has beeu preached in St. Sepulchre's Newgate, since Paul Jeryis ordained it in 1717, on .'the excellence of the Liturgy of the Church of England, and, in ad- diti0n, enough money was left to pay the preacher forty shillings, certain sums to curate and clerk, twenty shiI- lings each to the ten poorest house. holders of the Smithfeld quarter of St. Sepulchre's parish, four pounds to the treasurer Of St. Bartholomew Hospital, and the residue of yearly rents and profits to be divided among such poor of the parish as attend the sermon. Money was also provided for a dinner in the evening, at which the vicar. clergy, ehurch-wardens and common couneiImen Of the precinct attended, bat We believe this portion has been diverted.
 Again, to this day. on Maund5 Thursday tweatF-oue widows visit an ancient tomb in the chureh-Fard of st. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfeld. and pick up tweuty-one new six pences from of it-a custom which has been observed for over four huu- dred years. On the same day, until quite recent. the sixty youngest blue-coat boys used to assemble in T Lombard street church and receive q new penny and bag Of raisins ac- eordin9 to the will of Peter Symonds, who died in 156s; and at Easter tho boys of the same school, which comes in for a goodly share of the old citizen charity, hear the Spital sermon, and afterwards proceed to the Mansion House On Whit-Sundag tie officials of the Skinners' Company proceed in state from their hall to hear d sermon in the church of St. Antholin On Whit-Monday is the famous Flour sermon at the church of St Catharine Cree, Lcadenhall street, and on Whit Tuesday is stitl preached, at the church of St Leonard, Shoreditch. i'll accordance with tho will of Thomas Fairehild, gardener. who died in 172s. and left twenty-eight pounds for the purpose, sermon on .fhe certainty of resurrection from the dead, as shown by the changes in the oper- ations of the animal and vegetable kingdom. '-London Standard.