parishioners to confession, after which they partook of a meal of fritters and pancakes. After the Reformation the religious significance of the bell-ringing was lost, and it was popularly believed to be merely a signal for people to begin to make their, pancakes. An old lady over ninety told me: "At 12 o'clock the bell did hit out 'Pan, pan, pan, pan,' and you could see the women running from streets and gardens to start making pancakes, rapping the bottoms of the frying pans with spoons as soon as they could get to them, so that they made a pretty (i.e. considerable) noise." Children were released from school and work, clasping hands in the street they would dance and shout, sometimes with joined hands forming a great ring round the church. This was called "Clipping the Church."
The children sang:
"Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, when Jack went to plough
His mother made pancakes she did not know how,
She tissed them, she tossed them, she made them so black
She put so much pepper she poisoned poor Jack.
Hooray!"
If snow could be procured to mix the pancakes it was considered the mark of a skilful housewife, and a happy augury for the year. Happy too was the cook who could turn her pancakes by tossing them in the air and catching them neatly in her pan. Children were turned out of doors to see the pancakes tossed up through the chimney top, and came running back incredulous, only to be unjustly accused of having defective vision. In many cases, however, the labourers and their families waited until evening for the general feast of pancakes.
Apart from the pancake custom, there were many other Shrovetide observances which took different forms in different parts of the country. That known as "Lent Crocking" was not unknown in Somerset, having been practised well within the memory of old folk of to-day. A number of boys, armed with potsherds and stones, and headed by a leader, paraded the villages, and at each door the leader would knock, and the
