LONDON'S NIGHTLY CURFEW

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17296, 7 November 1921, Page 9

LONDON'S NIGHTLY CURFEW

At 9 o'clock each night the'curfew is rung in London. To many a Cockney this/will come as a surprise, writes a "Daily Chronicle" representative, but the fact that it. has been rung nightly for the past 300 years will probably be a greater cne. This old-time custom is sftjl a part of tho duty of the chief porter of Lincoln's Inn, and the official .holding that office has, with the exception of a period during tho war a earned out his duty of sounding the curfew for over 20 years. The bell which is tolled was origiuallv brought from Calais by the ill-fated ltobcrt Devereux, Earl or Essex, in 1596. It is hung ra the old Lincoln's Inn Chapel, erected during tho reign of James 1., in the building of which Ben Jonson is said to have used his trowel; . "At 8.45 each night I light my lantern and proceed to the belfry," said the chief porter—who in his modesty wishes to remain anonymous. "As soon as the last stroke of 9 has sounded I strike -ihe bell 50 times. Why 50/ Well, I don't know, except that it is the custom Lincoln's Inn, you know, had a had reputation in the days of the 'Mumpers f and 'Rufflers,' and perhaps, if a "roan was not sober, anything less than 60 f strokes would be unconvincing. The only time the curfew has not been sounded in Lincoln's Inn during tho past 300 years or so was during the war, after the bomb fell in Chancery lane in October, 19J5. I rang the bell, as usual, at 9 o'clock. The bomb fell 23 minutes later, shaking the whole place. Some people thought that the curfew was responsible, eo it was suspended until the night of the armistice."