5th Bell..2 10 7 3 7 Let us sound to the

honour of Christ and to

the glory of All Saints.

Tenor....3 0 9 0 7 I to the church the liv

Total Weight 36 0 7

ing call and to the grave do summons all. Memento mori, 1723. Mr. Thomas Arson.

The five older bells were ornamented with a crowned "GR" on the waist, a band of oak leaves round the top, and one of roses round the rim. I have not come across any mention of "Mr. Thomas Arson," or of that name in connection with Wallasey.

The new peal of six bells was cast by the above firm at a cost of about £200, but of these I regret I have no particulars. May they long continue to ring out from Wallasey Hill, Sunday by Sunday and year by year, answering the sweet bells of Bidston across the marsh, calling the Wallasey folk to Wallasey Church, mourning with us and rejoicing with us, and "sounding to the honour of Christ and the glory of All Saints."

APPENDIX C.

THE ROGATION PROCESSION.

"That every man might keep his owne possessions,
"Our fathers us'd, in reverent Processions,

(With zealous prayers, and with praisefull cheere,)
"To walke their parish-limits once a yeare;

"And well knowne markes (which sacrilegious hands
"Now cut or breake) so bord'red out their lands,
"That ev'ry one distinctly knew his owne;

"And many brawles, now rife, were then unknowne."
-Wither's Emblems, 1635.

One of the most interesting parts of Robinson's Account is his description of how "our Parsons "went their Procession," which in Wallasey, and in Robinson's day, had not degenerated into the ceremony of Beating the Bounds, with the accompanying swishing of the boys, or, as far as we can gather from the account, into that debauch which in many places distinguished the Gang Week,-"the "rage and furour of these uplandysh processions "and gangynges about, which be spent in ryotyng "and in belychere." The "ale and cakes" and "entertainment" indulged in by the Wallasey people may not, of course, have been the modest refreshment which it appears to be, but as far as we can tell the Wallasey procession was quiet and orderly, like that of George Herbert's Country Parson :-" Particularly he loves procession, and "maintains it; because there are contained therein "four manifest advantages: First, a blessing of "God for the fruits of the field: secondly, justice "in the preservation of bounds: thirdly, charity "in loving, walking, and neighbourly accompanying one another; with reconciling differences at that time, if there be any: fourthly, mercy in relieving "the poor by a liberal distribution and largess,

"which at that time is or ought to be used. "Wherefore he exacts all to be present at the "perambulation: and those that withdraw and "sever themselves from it, he mislikes and reproves "as uncharitably and unneighbourly."

The Rogation Days-the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next preceding Holy Thursday, or Ascension Day-have been appropriated to prayer and "humble supplication for a blessing on the "fruits of the earth at this season blossoming "forth" from early Christian times, combined, in England, with a perambulation of the parish bounds. One of our Church Homilies is composed particularly for use on this occasion, and is divided into three parts for the three different days. The Injunction of Queen Elizabeth says "The people "shall once a year, at the time accustomed, with "the curate and substantial men of the parish, walk "about the parishes as they were accustomed, and "at their return to church make their common

แ

prayers; provided that the curate in the said "common perambulations, as heretofore in the days "of Rogations, at certain convenient places, shall "admonish the people to give thanks to God, in "the beholding of God's benefits, for the increase "and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth, with the saying of Psalm civ, Benedic, ani"ma mea, &c.; at which time also the same mini"ster shall inculcate this and such like sentences"Cursed be he which translateth the bounds and "dales of his neighbour,' or such other words of prayer as shall be hereafter appointed." And in "Articles of Enquiry within the Archdeaconry of "Middlesex," 1662, occurs:-"Doth your Minister or Curate, in Rogation Dayes, go in Perambula"tion about your Parish, saying and using the "Psalms and Suffrages by Law appointed, as viz.: "Psalm 103, & 104, the Letany and Suffrages,

"together with the Homily, set out for that end "and purpose? Doth he admonish the people to "give thanks to God, if they see any likely hopes "of plenty, and to call upon him for his mercy, if "there be any fear of scarcity; and do you, the "Churchwardens, assist him in it?”

The bounds of the parishes and other spots were marked by Gospel Trees, Stones, or Crosses where pauses were made in the procession, and which were always objects of superstition, being used at funerals as in Note 33, and always being kept on the right hand by the careful wayfarer. These crosses were adorned with flowers, and in a sermon preached at Blandford Forum, Dorsetshire, in 1570, the preacher mentions "Your Gospelles at Super"stitious Crosses, deck'd like Idols," and says, The Sinnes committed betweene Easter and 'Whytsontyde, they were fully discharged by the "pleasant Walks and Processyons in the rogyng, "I should say, Rogation Weeke."

In Wolverhampton it was the custom to sing Benedicite Opera Omnia during procession, probably in addition to the regular Psalms, 103 and 104, a custom which also obtained in Wallasey. The Collect for Rogation Sunday, beginning "O

Lord, from whom all good things do come," was used during the three days, as well as the Litany, and the Homily mentioned above. According to Salisbury Use, an Epistle and Gospel were appointed for each day, but at the present time our Prayer Book only contains those for the Sunday.

The Wallasey Procession appears to have died out before the date of Robinson's account (1720). He mentions having gone the walk with Mr. Fetherstone, appointed in 1661, and Mr. Swinton, 1674, "but not all of a day"; but I am inclined to think that this was merely going over the ground, and that the procession may have been

dropped before the Restoration, when a Puritan minister would have viewed with horror the superstitious gadding" and praying at crosses. Robinson also says that one of the Gospel Stones "was broken and taken away by Ball," who was churchwarden in 1666, and that "part of the "ground where the sd Flowers were strewed, and "reading used is walled in by Mr: Runkhorn "setting a new stone wall and gate where never was any before." He would hardly have written such a circumstantial account of an annual custom, had it been in existence at the time of his writing; and I am more inclined to this view as he makes no mention of two great Wallasey events of his day, i.e., the Races, which were in full swing at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, and the Wake, which existed until the middle of the present century.

On the morning of the fifth Monday after Easter, late in April, or early in May, "the Old and Young People Dress't in White Attended at the Parson66 age house" on the slope of Wallasey Hill, below the old Church, and, with the Parson, went thrice about the Village Cross, which stood, I suppose, at the foot of the Church hill, and the junction of Breck Road, the Gutter, and the village street, and then "down the town." Turning to the right, near the north end of the village, through Urmson's Yate (Hampson's Yard, W. 315-17), they walked up Sandy Lane (running through Long Ditch Hey, W. 347-50) to the top of the hill, where Claremount School now stands. Here-whilst overlooking the sea and the fair plains of Wirral, with the Welsh mountains in the background and Black Combe peeping over Formby Point-they lifted up their voices in singing the Benedicite: "O, all ye works "of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; praise him, and "magnify him for ever"; and following the line of