We have received the following Replies to NABOC'S inquiry (Vol. ii., p. 103.) as to where the custom of ringing the curfew still remains.
Bingley in Yorkshire.—In the town of Bingley, in Yorkshire, the custom of ringing the curfew existed in the year 1824. It may have been discontinued since that year, but I do not know that it has.
It is also the custom at Blackburn, in Lancashire; and it was, if it is not now, at Bakewell in Derbyshire.
H.J.
Bromyard, Herefordshire.—The curfew is still rung at Bromyard, Herefordshire, at nine P.M., from the 5th of November, until Christmas Day; and the bell is afterwards tolled the number of the day of the month. Why it is merely confined to within the above days, I could never ascertain.
G.F.C.
Waltham-on-the-Wolds.—The curfew is still rung at Waltham-on-the-Wolds, Leicestershire, at five A.M., eight P.M. in summer, and at six A.M., seven P.M. in winter; the bell also tolling the day of the month.
R.J.S.
Oxfordshire.—I see that NABOC's inquiry about the curfew is answered at p. 175. by a reference to the Journal of the British Archæological Association. The list there is probably complete: but lest it should omit any, I may as well mention, from my own knowledge, Woodstock, Oxon, where it rings from eight to half-past eight in the evening, from October to March; Bampton and Witney, Oxon, and Stow, in Gloucester; at some of which places it is also rung at four in the morning.
C.