Note 1434 — MENSIS FEBRUARIUS
Reading edition
For modern practices of the kind in England see Brand, Popular Antiquities, ch. 36; and for Oxford, p. 209. As Brand puts it, the beaters (i. e. ministers, churchwardens, &c.), ‘beg a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and preserve the rights and boundaries of their parish.’ The analogy with the old Italian processions is very close.