Pray stop and drink before you go by."
C. I. R.
THE CURFEW.
(Vol. ii., pp. 103. 175. 189. 311.; Vol. iv., p. 240.; Vol. vi., pp. 53. 112.; Vol. vii., pp. 167. 530.; Vol. viii., p. 603.)
The curfew is still rung at Kidderminster at eight o'clock. It is the annual custom there, on a certain night, to continue the ringing for one hour, a sum of money having been left for that purpose as a thank-offering to God, for the curfew having been the means of saving a person from destruction. This person had lost his way on his return from Bridgenorth Fair, and when (as he afterwards discovered) on the point of falling from a great height, the sound of the Kidderminster curfew caused him to retrace his steps and regain the road. A five o'clock morning bell is also rung at Kidderminster. This and the curfew bell have been rung for many years past by "Blind William," who, notwithstanding his total blindness, finds his way along the streets that lead from his house to the church, and gains the belfry with the greatest ease. So well is he acquainted with the path to church, that he may be seen to turn the corners of the streets in as decided a manner as if his wide-open eyes were endowed with sight; and, with similar facility, he unlocks the gates and church doors. It is curious to see him on the dark winter evenings, apparently guiding his steps by the light of a lanthorn, which he probably carries in order to prevent careless people, who are blessed with sight, from running against him. Like most (if not all) blind people, he has an extraordinary ear for music, and will quickly reproduce on his violin any tune that may have caught his fancy. At this present festive period, a Kidderminster Christmas would lack one of its component parts, were Blind Willie and his fiddle not there to add to the harmony of the kindly season. During the month preceding Christmas, he promenades the streets at untimely hours, and draws from his old fiddle all the music which it is capable of giving forth. Indeed, Blind Willie may be considered (in Kidderminster at least) as the harbinger of Christmas, for he warns the inhabitants of its approach, long before the ordinary "waits" have taken their ordinary measures for the same purpose. And when Christmas Day is past and gone, he makes house-to-house visitation for the Christmas-box which is to be the reward of his "early minstrelsy."
The curfew is rung at Bewdley in Worcestershire.
At Durham the curfew is rung (on the great bell of the cathedral) at nine o'clock. It is therefore of the same use to the students of the University of Durham as "Tom" is to the students of the University of Oxford, viz. it marks the closing of the college gates.
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.