Beating the bounds
Encyclopedia
Beating the bounds is an ancient custom still observed in some English
and Welsh
parish
es. A group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for protection and blessings for the lands.
s were rare it was usual to make a formal perambulation of the parish boundaries on Ascension Day or during Rogation week
. Knowledge of the limits of each parish needed to be handed down so that such matters as liability to contribute to the repair of the church, and the right to be buried within the churchyard were not disputed. The relevant jurisdiction was that of the ecclesiastical courts. The priest
of the parish with the churchwarden
s and the parochial officials headed a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs, usually birch or willow, beat the parish boundary marker
s with them. Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys is supposed to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible. Priests would pray for its protection in the forthcoming year and often Psalms 103 and 104 were recited, and the priest would say such sentences as "Cursed is he who transgresseth the bounds or doles of his neighbour". Hymn
s would be sung, indeed a number of hymns are titled for their role, and many places in the English countryside bear names such as 'Gospel Oak
' testifying to their role in the beating of the bounds.
The ceremony had an important practical purpose. Checking the boundaries was a way of preventing encroachment by neighbours; sometimes boundary markers would be moved, or lines obscured, and a folk memory of the true extent of the parish was necessary to maintain integrity of borders by embedding knowledge in oral traditions.
At Manchester
in 1597 John Dee
recorded in his diary that he with the curate, the clerk and "diverse of the town of diverse ages" perambulated the bounds of the parish taking six days in all.
At Turnworth
in Dorset the parish register records the perambulation for 1747 thus:
In a few cases such as the Corporation of the City of Portsmouth the bounds were on the shoreline and the route was followed by boat rather than on foot.
The practice is still quite lawful and not affected by the limiting of the jurisdiction in 1860. Parish officers have the right to enter private property in carrying it out and also use the rates to cover expenses properly incurred (including refreshments, but not music, etc.). Perambulations must be at least three years apart.
days, as it is mentioned in laws of Alfred the Great
and Æthelstan
. It is thought that it may have been derived from the Roman
Terminalia, a festival celebrated on February 22 in honour of Terminus, the god of landmarks, to whom cakes and wine were offered, sports and dancing taking place at the boundaries. Similar practices, of pagan origin, were brought by the Viking
s. In England a parish-ale
, or feast, was always held after the perambulation, which assured its popularity, and in Henry VIII
's reign the occasion had become an excuse for so much revelry that it attracted the condemnation of a preacher who declared "these solemne and accustomable processions and supplications be nowe growen into a right foule and detestable abuse."
Beating the bounds had a religious
side in the practice which originated the term Rogation, the accompanying clergy being supposed to beseech (rogare) the divine
blessing upon the parish lands for the ensuing harvest
. This feature originated in the 5th century, when Mamertus
, Archbishop of Vienne, instituted special prayers and fasting and processions on these days. This clerical side of the parish bounds-beating was one of the religious functions prohibited by the Royal Injunctions of Elizabeth I
in 1559; but it was then ordered that the perambulation should continue to be performed as a quasi-secular function, so that evidence of the boundaries of parishes, etc., might be preserved. Bequests were sometimes made in connection with bounds-beating. For example, at Leighton Buzzard
on Rogation Monday, in accordance with the will of Edward Wilkes, a London
merchant who died in 1646, the trustee
s of his almshouse
s accompanied the boys. The will was read and beer
and plum rolls distributed. A remarkable feature of the bequest was that while the will is read one of the boys has to stand on his head.
In 1865–66 William Robert Hicks
was mayor of Bodmin
in Cornwall, when he revived the custom of Beating the bounds of the town. This still takes place more or less every five years and concludes with a game of Cornish hurling
. Hurling survives as a traditional part of Beating the bounds at Bodmin, commencing at the close of the 'Beat'. The game is organised by the Rotary club of Bodmin and was last played in 2010. The game is started by the Mayor of Bodmin by throwing a silver ball into a body of water known as the "Salting Pool". There are no teams and the hurl follows a set route. The aim is to carry the ball from the "Salting Pool" via the old A30
, along Callywith Road, then through Castle Street, Church Square and Honey Street to finish at the Turret Clock in Fore Street. The participant carrying the ball when it reaches the turret clock will receive a £10 reward from the Mayor. The next occurrence of the Bodmin Hurl will be following the next beating of the bounds, which is unlikely to take place until 2015.
Perambulation of the town borders is a traditional duty of town selectboards in the American state of New Hampshire.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
es. A group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for protection and blessings for the lands.
Ceremony
In former times when mapMap
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
s were rare it was usual to make a formal perambulation of the parish boundaries on Ascension Day or during Rogation week
Rogation days
Rogation days are, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are April 25, the Major Rogation, coinciding with St...
. Knowledge of the limits of each parish needed to be handed down so that such matters as liability to contribute to the repair of the church, and the right to be buried within the churchyard were not disputed. The relevant jurisdiction was that of the ecclesiastical courts. The priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
of the parish with the churchwarden
Churchwarden
A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish church or congregation of the Anglican Communion, usually working as a part-time volunteer. Holders of these positions are ex officio members of the parish board, usually called a vestry, parish council, parochial church council, or in the case of a...
s and the parochial officials headed a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs, usually birch or willow, beat the parish boundary marker
Boundary marker
A boundary marker, boundary stone or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in a direction of a boundary...
s with them. Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys is supposed to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible. Priests would pray for its protection in the forthcoming year and often Psalms 103 and 104 were recited, and the priest would say such sentences as "Cursed is he who transgresseth the bounds or doles of his neighbour". Hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s would be sung, indeed a number of hymns are titled for their role, and many places in the English countryside bear names such as 'Gospel Oak
Gospel Oak
Gospel Oak is an inner urban area of north London in the London Borough of Camden below Hampstead Heath. It is bordered by the more affluent areas of Belsize Park to the west, Kentish Town to the south, Eastern Hampstead to the North and Dartmouth Park and Tufnell Park to the east...
' testifying to their role in the beating of the bounds.
The ceremony had an important practical purpose. Checking the boundaries was a way of preventing encroachment by neighbours; sometimes boundary markers would be moved, or lines obscured, and a folk memory of the true extent of the parish was necessary to maintain integrity of borders by embedding knowledge in oral traditions.
At Manchester
Manchester (ancient parish)
Manchester was an ancient ecclesiastical parish of the hundred of Salford, in Lancashire, England. It encompassed several townships and chapelries, including the then township of Manchester...
in 1597 John Dee
John Dee
John Dee was a Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.John Dee may also refer to:* John Dee , Basketball coach...
recorded in his diary that he with the curate, the clerk and "diverse of the town of diverse ages" perambulated the bounds of the parish taking six days in all.
At Turnworth
Turnworth
Turnworth is a hamlet in north Dorset, England, situated on the Dorset Downs five miles west of Blandford Forum. The village consists of a few cottages and farmhouses scattered around a church and manor house. Nearby is Ringmoor, an ancient settlement on the top of the scarp face of the downs. ...
in Dorset the parish register records the perambulation for 1747 thus:
In a few cases such as the Corporation of the City of Portsmouth the bounds were on the shoreline and the route was followed by boat rather than on foot.
The practice is still quite lawful and not affected by the limiting of the jurisdiction in 1860. Parish officers have the right to enter private property in carrying it out and also use the rates to cover expenses properly incurred (including refreshments, but not music, etc.). Perambulations must be at least three years apart.
Origins
In England the custom is as old as Anglo-SaxonHistory of Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...
days, as it is mentioned in laws of Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
and Æthelstan
Athelstan of England
Athelstan , called the Glorious, was the King of England from 924 or 925 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder, grandson of Alfred the Great and nephew of Æthelflæd of Mercia...
. It is thought that it may have been derived from the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
Terminalia, a festival celebrated on February 22 in honour of Terminus, the god of landmarks, to whom cakes and wine were offered, sports and dancing taking place at the boundaries. Similar practices, of pagan origin, were brought by the Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s. In England a parish-ale
Parish Ale
The Parish ale was a festival in an English parish at which ale made and donated for the event was the chief drink. The word "ale" was generally used as part of a compound term. Thus there was the leet-ale ; the lamb-ale ; the Whitsun-ale , the clerk-ale, the church-ale etc...
, or feast, was always held after the perambulation, which assured its popularity, and in Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
's reign the occasion had become an excuse for so much revelry that it attracted the condemnation of a preacher who declared "these solemne and accustomable processions and supplications be nowe growen into a right foule and detestable abuse."
Beating the bounds had a religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
side in the practice which originated the term Rogation, the accompanying clergy being supposed to beseech (rogare) the divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
blessing upon the parish lands for the ensuing harvest
Harvest
Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...
. This feature originated in the 5th century, when Mamertus
Mamertus
Saint Mamertus was the Archbishop of Vienne in Gaul and is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. His primary contribution to ecclesiastical practice was the introduction of litanies prior to Ascension Day as an intercession against earthquakes and other disasters, leading to "Rogation Days." His...
, Archbishop of Vienne, instituted special prayers and fasting and processions on these days. This clerical side of the parish bounds-beating was one of the religious functions prohibited by the Royal Injunctions of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in 1559; but it was then ordered that the perambulation should continue to be performed as a quasi-secular function, so that evidence of the boundaries of parishes, etc., might be preserved. Bequests were sometimes made in connection with bounds-beating. For example, at Leighton Buzzard
Leighton Buzzard
-Lower schools:*Beaudesert Lower School - Apennine Way*Clipstone Brook Lower School - Brooklands Drive*Greenleas Lower School - Derwent Road*Dovery Down Lower School - Heath Road*Heathwood Lower School - Heath Road*Leedon Lower School - Highfield Road...
on Rogation Monday, in accordance with the will of Edward Wilkes, a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
merchant who died in 1646, the trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
s of his almshouse
Almshouse
Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...
s accompanied the boys. The will was read and beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
and plum rolls distributed. A remarkable feature of the bequest was that while the will is read one of the boys has to stand on his head.
Contemporary observations
Although modern surveying techniques make the ceremony obsolete, at least for its secular purpose, many English parishes carry out a regular beating of the bounds, as a way of strengthening the community and giving it a sense of place.In 1865–66 William Robert Hicks
William Robert Hicks
William Robert Hicks was a British asylum superintendent and well known humorist of the 19th century.-Biography:Hicks, son of William Hicks, a schoolmaster, of Bodmin, Cornwall, who died 16 March 1833, by Sarah, daughter of William and Margaret Hicks, was born at Bodmin on 1 April 1808, and...
was mayor of Bodmin
Bodmin
Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...
in Cornwall, when he revived the custom of Beating the bounds of the town. This still takes place more or less every five years and concludes with a game of Cornish hurling
Cornish Hurling
Cornish Hurling or Hurling the Silver Ball , is an outdoor team game of Celtic origin played only in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is played with a small silver ball...
. Hurling survives as a traditional part of Beating the bounds at Bodmin, commencing at the close of the 'Beat'. The game is organised by the Rotary club of Bodmin and was last played in 2010. The game is started by the Mayor of Bodmin by throwing a silver ball into a body of water known as the "Salting Pool". There are no teams and the hurl follows a set route. The aim is to carry the ball from the "Salting Pool" via the old A30
A30 road
The 284 miles A30 road from London to Land's End, historically known as the Great South West Road used to provide the most direct route from London to the south west; more recently the M3 motorway and A303 road performs this function for much of the route and only parts of A30 now retain trunk...
, along Callywith Road, then through Castle Street, Church Square and Honey Street to finish at the Turret Clock in Fore Street. The participant carrying the ball when it reaches the turret clock will receive a £10 reward from the Mayor. The next occurrence of the Bodmin Hurl will be following the next beating of the bounds, which is unlikely to take place until 2015.
Perambulation of the town borders is a traditional duty of town selectboards in the American state of New Hampshire.
See also
- Leyton MarshesLeyton MarshesLeyton Marshes are located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest at Leyton.- Geography :The marshes are bordered by the Walthamstow Marshes, River Lee Navigation, River Lee Flood Relief Channel and Hackney Marshes. Much of the original area has been taken over for other uses...
(example of an area where the custom has been revived) - PerambulationPerambulationPerambulation means "walking around". In traditional English law, it is used specifically to mean "determining the bounds of a legal area by walking around it", meaning physically walking around the region in question...