...Beat That
...Beat That
Ascension Day, or Rogation day, is the day for Beating the Bounds, or boundaries, of your parish. There has been a recent revival of interest in this ceremony which had a dual purpose of blessing the land and keeping up the memory of the parish boundaries in the days before formal maps. Although some are kept up annually, most ‘beatings’ are done every three or seven years.
Shoppers at Oxford’s Marks & Spencer on Ascension Day are surprised when a troop of choristers, academics, and visitors enter the lingerie department and proceed to beat a spot on the carpet with long canes, yelling “Mark! Mark! Mark!” The store was built directly over the boundary of the parish – appropriately the parish of St. Michael’s! There are thirty-one venues in all and others include the covered market, the Town Hall, Boots the Chemist, the inside of a bike shop and a pub! The day finishes with a drink of ivy-beer, doughnuts and a scramble for hot pennies thrown from the roof of Lincoln College.
It is quite normal to bump on the boundary marker any child attending the perambulations in order that locations would be ‘sorely remembered.’ In London, a school boy is held upside down by his feet from a boat in the Thames where there is a boundary... making sure he has emptied his coat pockets first, of course!
