Shrove-tuesday

is the Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday, or the day immediately preceding the first of Lent; being se called from the Saxon word shrive, which signifies to confe . Hence Shrove-Tuesday signifies Confe ion-Tuesday, on which day all the people in every parish throughout England (during the Romish times) were obliged to confe their sins, one by one, to their own parish priests, in their own parish churches; and, that this might be done the more regularly, the great bell in eyery parish was rung at 10 o'clock, or perhaps sooner, that it might be heard by all, and that they might attend, according to the custom then in use; and though the Romish religion has now given way to the Protestant religion, the custom of ringing the great bell in‘ our ancient parish churches, at least in some of them, still remains, and obtains in and about London the name of pancake bell; perhaps, because after the confe ion it was customary for the several persons to dine on pancakes or fritters. Many churches, indeed, have rejected that custom of ringing the bell on Shrove-Tuesday; but the usage of dining on pancakes or fritters, and such like provision, still continues,