On this account
there is a particular custom yearly observed, according to ancient
agreement, dated 1662, between the Lord of the Manor of Gillingham, and the
Mayor and Burgesses of Shaftesbury. The Mayor is obliged, the Monday before
Holy Thursday, to dress up a prize bezon, or bizant, somewhat like a May
garland in form, with gold and peacocks' feathers, and carry to Enmori
Green, half a mile below the town in Motcomb, as an acknowledgment for the
water, together with a raw calf's head, a pair of gloves, a gallon of beer
or ale, and two penny loaves of white wheaten bread, which the steward
receives and carries away for his own use. The ceremony being over, the
bizant is restored to the Mayor, and brought back by one of his officers
with great solemnity. This bizant is generally so richly adorned with plate
and jewels, borrowed from the neighbouring gentry, as to be worth not less
than L1,500.
C. D.
* * * * *
TRINITY TERM ENDS 11th JUNE.
(_For the Mirror._)
"On this day," says Brady, in his _Calendaria_, "Trinity Term ends; and
immediately on the rising of the Court, commences that cessation from legal
business emphatically denominated the 'long vacation,' or that space which
our ancestors have wisely left undisturbed by law concerns, that the people
may be the better able to attend to the different harvests throughout the
kingdom.
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