ber 5th she appears to believe that the honour of the
reformed church is wholly in her hands, and that unless her voice is
heard declaiming against the tyrannies and treacheries of Rome all the
spiritual labours of the eighth Henry will have been in vain.

No fewer than eight Bonfire Societies flourish in the town, all in a
strong financial position. Each of these has its bonfire blazing or
smouldering at a street corner, from dusk to midnight, and each, at a
certain stage in the evening, forms into procession, and approaching its
own fire by devious routes, burns an effigy of the Pope, together with
whatever miscreant most fills the public eye at the moment--such as
General Booth or Mr. Kruger, both of whom I have seen incinerated amid
cheers and detonations.

[Sidenote: LEWES ROUSERS]

The figures are not lightly cast upon the flames, but are conducted
thither ceremoniously, the "Bishop" of the society having first passed
sentence upon them in a speech bristling with local allusions. These
speeches serve the function of a _revue_ of the year and are sometimes
quite clever, but it is not until they are printed in the next morning's
paper that one can take their many points. The principal among the many
distractions is the "rouser," a squib peculiar to Lewes, to which the
bonfire boys (who are, by the way, in great part boys only in name, like
the postboys of the past and the cowboys of the present) have given
laborious nights throughout the preceding October. The rouser is much
larger and heavier than the ordinary squib; it is propelled through the
air like a rocket by the force of its escaping sparks; and it bursts
with a terrible report. In order to protect themselves from the ravages
of the rouser the people in the streets wear spectacles of wire netting,
while the householders board up their windows and lay damp straw on
their gratings. Ordinary squibs and crackers are also continuously
ignited, while now and then one of the sky rockets discharged in flights
from a procession, elects to take a horizontal course, and hurtles
head-high down the crowded street.

So the carnival proceeds until midnight, when the firemen, who have
been on the alert all the evening, extinguish the fires. The Bonfire
Societies subsequently collect information as to any damage done and
make it good: a wise course, to which they owe in part the sanction to
renew the orgie next year. Other towns in Sussex keep up the glorious
Fifth with