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Show iHF TAKEN FROM " THEJUEIDDLE AGES Bishop of Peterborough Goes on Pilgrimage Among Clergy and People. IS STRIKING FIGURE Walks From Parish to Parish Par-ish and Carries a Crooked, Crook-ed, Oaken Staff. PETERBOROUGH. KngUnl, Sept. 15. The bishop of Peterborough has taken a leaf out of the history of the middle ages and gone on a three weeks' pilgrimage pil-grimage among his clergy and people. He is walking from parish to parish robed in his purple cassock and carrying a crooked staff. The parishioners of the first week's Itinerary of the bishop are clustered about the rolling, richly wooded wood-ed Leicestershire country in the neigh- borhood of Belvolr castle and in the vale of Belvoir. A correspondent of the Daily Mail who met the bishop at the boundary line of two parishes on a lonely country road, where the silence was interrupted only by the rumbling of distant thunder and the solitude of the landscape was broken only by the silhouettes of a shepherd and his flocks, describes the procession accompanying ac-companying him as being truly a medieval medie-val spectacle. Heads Procession. The bishop, he says, headed the procession proces-sion a tall figure, virile and splendid ; taller by fully live inches than the six-foot six-foot staff he carried, which was made, specially for the pilgrimage, from a 50t-y 50t-y ear-old oak at Peterborough cathedral. On this staff the bishop intends to carve the names of the various parishes he visits, as other pedestrians carve names on their Alpine stocks. With the bishop ; on this occasion there walked in the blaz-, blaz-, ing sunshine the rural dean of Frajn- land, the rector of the parish (Uedmile), and his churchwarden and parishioners. i At the parish boundary the procession j halted and the bishop bade a personal farewell to every parishioner and thanked i the rector for simple hospitality extended extend-ed a pilgrim. Then the people stood in a circle around him, the men with their heads bared, and the bishop prayed for the parish and its people and gave them his benediction. Given Warm Welcome. About the same time the rector of Barkston, in his cassock and with his churchwarden and parishioners, appeared down the dusty road in the opposite direction. di-rection. Thus, with bells of the churches welcoming him and the, new procession accompanying him, the bishop continued his way into the parish of Barkston. The bishop conducted the afternoon service of intercession. Theso services are special war services, with prayers and special reference to parishioners who are lighting or who have fallen in battle. bat-tle. The bishop of Peterborough regards the services of his pilgrimage as friendly, helpful meetings of bishops, pastors and people in time of stress and sorrow. The correspondent says that he has, beyond ; all doubt, immensely touched the Ining- ! ination of the people by his walking pil- j grimage. |