origin of which is lost in the mists of antiquity. As the old church
clock strikes two a little speech is made, the National Anthem sung,
and then some popular devotee of the game is hoisted on the shoulders
of excited players and throws up the ball. "She's up," is the cry, and
then the wild contest begins, which lasts often till nightfall.
Several efforts have been made to stop the game, and even the judge of
the Court of Queen's Bench had to decide whether it was legal to play
the game in the streets. In spite of some opposition it still
flourishes, and is likely to do so for many a long year. Sedgefield,
Chester-le-Street, Alnwick, Dorking also have their famous football
fights, which differ much from an ordinary league match. In the latter
thousands look on while twenty-two men show their skill. In these old
games all who wish take part in them, all are keen champions and know
nothing of professionalism.

"Ycleping," or, as it is now called, clipping churches, is another
Shrovetide custom, when the children join hands round the church and
walk round it. It has just been revived at Painswick, in the
Cotswolds, where after being performed for many hundred years it was
discontinued by the late vicar. On the patron saint's day (St. Mary's)
the children join hands in a ring round the church and circle round
the building singing. It is the old Saxon custom of "ycleping," or
naming the church on the anniversary of its original dedication.

Simnels on Mothering Sunday still exist, reminding us of Herrick's
lines:--

I'll to thee a Simnel bring,
'Gainst thou goes a mothering;
So that when she blesseth thee
Half the blessing thou'lt give me.

Palm Sunday brings some curious customs. At Roundway Hill, and at
Martinsall, near Marlborough, the people bear "palms," or branches of
willow and hazel, and the boys play a curious game of knocking a ball
with hockey-sticks up the hill; and in Buckinghamshire it is called
Fig Sunday, and also in Hertfordshire. Hertford, Kempton,
Edlesborough, Dunstable are homes of the custom, nor is the practice
of eating figs and figpies unknown in Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire,
Oxfordshire, Wilts, and North Wales. Possibly the custom is connected
with the withering of the barren fig-tree.

Good Friday brings hot-cross-buns with the well-known rhyme. Skipping
on that day at Brighton is, I expect, now extinct. Sussex boys play
marbles, Guildford folk climb St. Ma