Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-10-10
OLD LONDON CUSTOMS. !.
Tho English Metropolis . verftabIe StronR.
hold Of Anticipated Obseryauces.

Tho English Metropolis verttable strong.
hold Of Anticipated 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
observances. 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 eeem, while the country has
become terribly prosaic 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 ver-
liable stronghold of customs and OBJ
servances 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 place of residence. there are ser
mons preached in them upon special
occasions for the origin of many of
which we must 60 back long way in
our history; and there are customs
practiced in connection with them of
which in many cases the origin is abso-
lutely unknown. On ST. Pauls Day,
for instance. a sermon has been
preached in ST. Sepulchre's Newgate.
since Paul Jervis ordained it in 1717,
on 1.-The excellence of the Liturgy of
the Church of England" and, in ad-
dition, enough money was left TO pay
the preacher forty shillings. certain
sums to curate and clerk, twenty shil-
lings each to the ten poorest house
holders of the Smithfield 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
dinner in the evening, at which the
vicar, clergy. church-wardens and
common councilmen OF the precinct
attended, but we believe this portion
has been diverted.
Again. to this day. on Maundy
Thursday twenty-one widows visit an
ancient tomb in the church-yard of St.
Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield,
and pick up twenty-one new six
pences from Off it-a custom which
has been observed for over four hun.
dred years. On the same day, until
quite recently, the sixty youngest
blue-coat boys used to assemble in a
Lombard street church and receive a
new penny and a bag of raisins &C
cording to the will of Peter Symonds,
who died in 1868; and at Easter the
boys of the same school. which comes
in for goodly share of the old citizen
charity, hear the Spital sermon. and
afterwards proceed to the Mansion
House. On Whit-Sunday the officials
of the SINNERS Company proceed in
state from their hall to hear a sermon
in the church of St. Antholin. On
Whit-Monday is the famous Flour
sermon at the church of St. Catharine
Cree, Leadenhall street, and on Whit
Tuesday is still preached, at the
church of St. Leonard, Shoreditch. in
accordance with tho will of Thomas
Fairchild, gardener. who died in 1928.
and left twenty eight pounds for the
purpose. a sermon on 1.-The certainty
of resurrection from the dead, as
shown by the changes in the oper-
ations of the animal and vegetable
kingdom. London Standard.