244 Bradford-upon-Avon. [Parish Church. 
Harvey, Merrick, Milsom, Notton, Palmer, Pearce, Porch, Spender, 
Stevens, Strawbridge, Tayler, Townsend, Webb, Wilkins, Wiltshere. 
Of the inscriptions there are very few worth recording. One, in 
Latin, from the pen of the Rey. Dr. Knight, on the tomb of his 
daughter, is said to have been both correct and elegant, but it is 
now s0 defaced as to be illegible. The two following are the best 
of those that remain :—the former is frbm a mural slab on the east 
side of the Porch to the memory of a youth named ‘Edward Gib- 
bons,’ who died at the age of 17 years;—the Jatter is on a flat 
stone in the western part of the Church-yard, beneath which are 
the remains of ‘Thomas Mills.’ 
‘‘Short was my life, yet live I ever; 
Death hath his due, yet dye I never.” 
‘«Stay, sinner, stay ;— pause ere thou passest on, 
Thou too must mingle with thy parent dust: 
Forget my sins,—repent thee of thine own,— 
And for forgiveness in thy Saviour trust.” 
Oxp Custom IN THE CHURCH-YARD ON SHROVE-TUESDAY. 
This would seem to be an appropriate place in which to mention 
an old custom which has hardly yet quite passed away, and which, 
until the Church-yard was enclosed, was strictly observed. On the 
morning of Shrove-Tuesday, from time immemorial, a bell has been 
tolled; the original purpose of such tolling has long of course been 
forgotten, though no doubt in olden times the people were thus 
summoned to confess their sins to the priest, or to ‘shrive’ themselves, 
as it was termed, the especial work of Shrove-Tuesday ;—whence it 
derives its name. Shortly after the bell ceased, all the boys and 
youths of the town, both those from the Schools and those 
apprenticed to divers crafts,—(custom indeed had given the latter 
a sort of prescriptive claim to a holiday on the occasion)—clustered 
in great numbers in the Church-yard, and sought, by joining hands, 
entirely to encircle the Church. There was, of course, on the circle 
being completed, the usual quantity ofjumping and shouting. They 
called this ceremony, ‘clipping the Church’ ;—the term, I cannot 
doubt, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘ clyp-pan,’ which 
means, to ‘embrace,’ or ‘c/asp.’ 
