rates of the said parish, and that the said parish be repaid the same out of the interest or dividends now in arrear of the said charity-moneys, or out of the principal sum or sums thereof. THOS. BURROW, chairman. J. R. Winstanley, vicar. W. J. Walker. W. Roberts. James Ward. Joseph Hall. James Clack. Rich. Clark, John Knapp. At this same meeting it is resolved that all deeds, books, parchments, papers, and documents or copies thereof whatsoever and wheresoever, belonging to or in any wise concerning the interests of the parish_of Bampton, be forthwith lodged in the parish-chest, and be kept under proper locks and keys, to be part in the custody of the vicars, and part in the keeping of the churchwardens; and that an inmediate application be made by the parish-officers to all those, who may have any such documents, as aforesaid, in their possession, to be kind enough to deliver up the same for the said purpose―T. BURROW &c. [as above and moreover] Wm. Andrews. Edward Kerwood. Feb. 27, 1829. At a general vestry this day holden in the vestry-room, pursuant to due notice, to nominate proper persons to be trustees of the charities given by the late Mrs. Snell, the Mrs. Fredericks and Mrs. Croft, the Rev. Thomas Burrow in the chair — RESOLVED that the vicars for the time being, the churchwardens of Bampton and Weald for the time being, Frederick Whitaker esq., Rev. Ŵm. Jos. Walker. clerk, Jonathan Arnatt, Wm Andrews, James Ward, and Thomas Green are fit and proper persons to be trustees for the said charities, and they are hereby nominated accordingly. THOS. BURROW, chairman. J. R. Winstanley, vicar. James Ward. Jos. Hall. Wm. Andrews, James Rose. § 10. DEEDS IN THE GREAT IRON CHEST. In the great iron chest, besides the old vestry-books, are contained a large number of deeds relating to the charities of the town, securities for charity-money lent on mortgages, besides other papers, of a more temporary interest, and now of little or no value to the parish. The principal of these papers will be hereafter referred to, under the head of the "Public Charities of Bampton. § 11. OF THE POLICE AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF THE TOWN. Not many years ago the lords of the manor of Bampton still continued to hold courts-leet, to appoint constables, and to practise many other feudal customs which were general in the days of our forefathers. All these customs have now almost entirely disappeared : the spirit of the nineteenth century has pushed his reforming progress even faster than the railway, and has shown himself in Bampton, where his rival has not yet dared to come! The constables of Bampton are elected no longer by the lords of the manor, but according to the modern Act of Parliament, by which the duties of those officers are now generally regulated. The town has a further guarantee for its tranquillity in the residence of two magistrates, F. Whitaker, Esq. and the vicar of the second portion, the Rev. Dacres Adams. There is also a board of Inspectors appointed by the vestry-meeting, to take further charge of the property of the inhabitants, and to enlighten their ways by night. Happily the people of Bampton are famous for their honesty and single-mindedness, so that the Inspectors, who meet once a month at the Town-Hall, do not suffer much from the weight of their public duties. Neither do they waste much oil in the service of the inhabitants four lamps, affixed to the corners of the Market-house, are sufficient to shew by night that there is such a building in existence and how dark besides is all around it! The two watchmen and the bedel,* who act under the orders of the Inspectors, are a terror to all the evil-doers, old and young, in the town and neighbourhood. §. 12. THE TOWN-HALL. In the centre of the market-place stands the Town Hall, to which I have before alluded at page 21. This building was erected a few years ago by subscription. The cost of it amounted to about £300: and the lords of the manor agreed with the subscribers to convey the fee-simple of this building to Trustees for the use of the inhabitants for * The bedel of Bampton is a very ancient officer. He occurs in an instrument of the thirteenth century. See Appendix, No VI. ever. This arrangement however has not yet been complete d, from the deficiency of money to pay the necessary expenses of the conveyance. The large upper-room is used for the meetings of the Magistrates and of the Board of Inspectors, besides other casual purposes, such as for itinerant exhibitions and the performances of public lectures. A small sum is raised from these sources, but hardly sufficient to heat the room and to pay for the windows, which are broken by the boys congregated in the market-place below. § 13. THE PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS OF BAMPTON, ST. STEPHEN'S BREAKFAST, CIRCUITING, FAIRS, MORRIS-DANCERS, MUMMERS. It has often been a subject of regret with those who desire to promote the innocent enjoyments of their fellow-citizens, that the people in general have so few opportunities of meeting together for recreation after their daily labours, or for the healthy games and pastimes in which our fathers so much delighted. Since the days of the Puritans-those stern philosophers, who in avoiding one superstition rushed head. long into its opposite, equally if not still more pernicious—all the sports and recreations of the people have been abolished; or have retired from public view within the doors of those who can afford to pay for the gratification. It might have been anticipated, from the primitive character of Bampton and the adherence of its inhabitants to long established customs, that many ancient practices, elsewhere obsolete, would here have been retained with something denoting their former history. But the list of these amusements and ancient pastimes is very brief: and it is to be feared that the remnants which still exist may ere long entirely disappear. Of the festivals which formerly were held at Bampton, but have now ceased to exist, and are almost forgotten by all, except the oldest of the inhabitants, the most popular and entertaining were "St. Stephen's Breakfast" and the "Circuiting." The former of these was a remnant of those public rejoicings, which were once so prevalent in England, and were generally accompanied with good eating a luxury, now-a-days, unfortunately very difficult to be obtained by the greater part of the people of England. These banquetings were, certainly, often attended with much licence and disorder, as the author of "Some Account of the ancient and present state of Shewsbury, [12mo, 1808.]" justly observes, but I cannot refrain from wishing that the people could have more frequent occasions of regaling themselves on such good and wholesome elements as beef and beer, even at the expense of a little indecorum, which, I think, would in these times be hardly carried to such length as to render an Act of Parliament necessary to restrain it. At Shrewsbury, however, in A. D. 1540, which was the 31st of Henry VIII, the inhabitants carried their jokes too far, and an order was made "that the breakfasts, given by the Bayliffs on Christmas-day, between Matyns and hyghe mass, be no longer used for diverse consyderascions and misorder that have come by reason of the same." It was probably customary for the bayliffs and aldermen [of Shrewsbury] to attend the early matins at two o'clock in the morning of Christmas day in their formalities, in St Mary's or St Chad's church, which on that occasion was splendidly illuminated; from thence they returned to the hall in procession accompained by many of the inhabitants, when the break-fast here mentioned, consisting of beef, brawn, minced pies and ale, was given, and perhaps the carousing continued until the time of high mass, at which the bailiffs also doubtless were present. This custom of attending the matins on Christmas day gave rise to a religious ceremony, which until these thirty years was universally observed in North Wales. The churches were lighted up according to the opulence of the parish; the people assembled in them at three o'clock in the morning, and after the prayers and a sermon were concluded, they continued singing psalms till day-light, when they returned home to partake of the accustomed good cheer of the season. Those, who from age or infirmity were prevented attending the church, invariably arose at that early hour, read the prayers in their own houses, and sang the appropriate psalms; this act of devotion was called PLYGAIN "the crowing of the cock," our blessed Saviour's birth, as it was superstitiously imagined, having been anounced by that animal, and ever after during the holy season the cock was supposed to exert his power throughout the night. "Some say, that ever, 'gainst that season comes, Traces of these religious breakfasts are said to have been still met with in several parishes of England, within the last fifty or sixty years. But the only one of the kind which I have ever heard of, was "St. Stephen's breakfast," held formerly at Bampton, and so called from St. Stephen's day, the 26th of December, on which it was celebrated. From the accounts which have been given me by some of the elderly inhabitants, it appears that those who rented the tithes used to boil a large quantity of beef early on the morning of St. Stephen's day, and send it, smoking hot, to the three vicarages, where it formed the centre of a large circle of farmers and others who were assembled to partake of the breakfast. What other solemnities accompanied this feast, I have not been able to ascertain, but there is no doubt that the rest of the day was devoted to jollification, and that no one, who had been in any way connected with the breakfast, ever conceived a thought of returning to his labour until the next morning. The next occasion of holiday to the people of Bampton was the ceremony of "circuiting" or "processioning," as it was sometimes termed. This took place in Rogation-week, and its object was, in fact, to identify and maintain the bounds of the parish, by annually circumambulating them. This custom, like that of St. Stephen's breakfast, disappeared after the In |