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London young Dick would be able to tell where he
was by looking up just a little above head height to
read all sorts of boundary markers, the arms of
Livery Companies to mark their properties for
example including the wonderful Demi-Vierge,
literally the half-virgin of the Mercers, the company
with which he would make his fortune.
The Parish Boundaries
Stone markers along the road or metal plaques on
the walls of buildings in towns might have been very
useful way markers for travellers. Parish boundaries
might be very ancient indeed. It has been suggested
that they might, to some degree, follow the tax
boundaries laid out by the Romans. The thinking is
that just as the Romans may have built their temples
and villas on the sites of native pagan worship, so
the Christian missionaries built their churches on the
site of Roman temples.
Parish boundaries were important because of the
tithes owed to the church on parcels of land which
represents this country’s earliest form of rates and
which as time went by were greatly needed because
of the civic duties bestowed on parish councils –
everything from repairing the roads, to enforcing
law and order and later from the 16th century for the
Poor Law. Parish boundaries were also crucial to a
persons right to be baptised, married and buried at a
particular church. It was therefore important that
people knew what parish they lived in and where the
boundaries were.
Beating The Bounds
For many years before maps became common annual
perambulations were held to remind people of local
parish boundaries. The annual perambulations became
known as Beating the Bounds.
In England this is a very ancient custom dating, at
least, from Anglo-Saxon times when it was recorded
among the laws of Alfred the Great. Beating the
bounds is also known as
gang days
from the
Anglo-Saxon word
gangen
meaning to go, hence the
practice of finishing with a feast of
ganging or gang
beer
accompanied by rammalation cakes, this odd
name being simply a corruption of perambulation
.
No recipe survives for rammalation cakes so they were
probably a local favourite and would have been very
popular at the end of a day because the parish walk
was usually held during Rogationtide which is
traditionally a time of fasting.
During Rogation the priest wears violet vestments and
prayers are made for the blessing of the land, livestock
and crops in the hope of a good harvest so it fits well
with Beating the Bounds. The priest along with the
churchwardens and parochial officials led a procession
largely made up of small boys who armed with green
boughs of birch or willow beat the boundary markers.
In earlier days the priest and churchwardens beat the
boys with the willow boughs or violently bumped their
heads against the boundary marks so they’d
sorely
remember
them. Priests might read from Psalms 103
and 104:
"Cursed is he who transgresseth the bounds or doles
of his neighbour".