Singular Ceremony In Making Alnwick Freemen.

and finding a foot-path , pursued it until he came to an avenue bordered on both sides with whins , which conducted him to the well , where he found three tinkers solacing themselves by the side of the fountain , who desired him to sit clown ancl tell them the news . He did so , supposing his end was in fact answered ; but their uncouth conduct and . scurrilous conversation soon convinced him of his mistake . After making themselves merry with mocking

him , they led him a little below to a boggy bottom , where the strand insinuated itself , ancl caused the king to travel to ancl fro , until daubed with dirt from head to foot , when they suffered him to . depart . He hastened home , ancl as he passed through Alnwick street the people crowded about him , believing that he was either mad or drunk . Tired with their inquiries after the cause of his dirty conditionhe testily told them that ' All their posterity should tread in

, his footsteps . ' He reached the castle , and despatched an armed party in pursuit of the tinkers , wdio were soon overtaken and brought before the king . Two were ordered to be instantl y executed ; the third , to -whose interference , he alleged , he owed his life , was presented with a handsome sum of money ancl set at liberty . He then made a law that if three tinkers were ever in future found travelling in company two of them should be hanged ; ancl in

consequence of the people ' s ludicrous laughing at him , he made a decree that no man should enjoy the freedom of Alnwick until he had travelled through the same slough that the king had just travelled through . " The custom of " going through the well , " as it is termed , was performed for the last time in 1854 , when the moor was enclosed . Two more years they rode the boundaries , but refused to go through the well . Hull . Wiu , iA 3 t AXDEEWS , F . R . H . S .

Acrostic.

ACROSTIC .

A'S the apprentice , full age ancl free born ; B is the bible on which he is sworn ; C is the cable-tow , noosed in one part ; D is the dagger that points to his heart ; E is the entrance for which he has sought ; F is the faith by which it is bought ; G is the gavelor sometimes styled maul

, , H is the Hiram for order to call ; I is the Inner Guard , armed with ' a sword , J is the Junior Warden , his lord ; K is the knock to be given but thrice ; L is the lodge which opes in a trice ; M is the mason in jewels so bright ;

N is the novice who now sees the li ght ; 0 is the O . B . he should not forget , P is the password he doesn't get yet ; Q is the question that ' s put from each chair , R is the response he must give when he ' s there ; S is the sign by which he'll be known ;

T is the token that ' s given and shown ; TJ is the use to be made of the pair ; V is the volume , with compass ancl square ; W , Wardens , who sit south and west ; X the ' xample they set to the rest ; Y is his " yes " when asked for his coin ;

Z is the zany who ' s frightened to join . H . S .