Bounds, BEATING OF THE

Bounds, BEATING OF THE, or Perambulation, the popular expression in England for those periodical surveys or perambulations by which the ancient boundaries of parishes used to be preserved, and which in many respects resembled the old Roman terminalia, celebrated every year on February 23, the last month of the year. On Holy Thursday or Ascension-day, the clergyman of the parish, with the parochial officers and other parishioners, followed by the boys of the parish school, headed by their masters, used to go in procession to the different parish boundaries, which boundaries the boys struck with peeled willow-wands that they carried in their hands. Sometimes the boys were whipped at important points 'to make them remember.' At Shrewsbury the bounds-beating was called Banning, and was kept up annually till the middle of the 19th century. At Ludlow it still retained its religious character in 1822. For an account of the ceremonies, see Brand's Popular Antiquities, under 'Rogation Week and Ascension Day.' The custom is not confined to England. See Mackenzie Wallace's Russia.