Winchester.—Curfew is still rung at Winchester.
AN OLD COMMONER PREFECT.
Over, near Winsford, Cheshire.—The custom of ringing the curfew is still kept up at Over, near Winsford, Cheshire; and the parish church, St. Chads, is nightly visited for that purpose at eight o'clock. This bell is the signal amongst the farmers in the neighbourhood for "looking up" their cattle in the winter evenings; and was, before the establishment of a public clock in the tower of the Weaver Church at Winsford, considered the standard time by which to regulate their movements.
A READER.
[We are indebted to the courtesy of the Editor of the Liverpool Albion for this Reply, which was originally communicated to that paper.]
The Curfew, of which some inquiries have appeared in the "NOTES AND QUERIES," is generally rung in the north of England. But then it is also common in the south of Scotland. I have heard it in Kelso, and other towns in Roxburghshire. The latter circumstance would appear to prove that it cannot have originated with the Norman conqueror, to whom it is attributed.
W.