Ringing the old bailiff out at Buckingham

A visitor to Buckingham on the first Sunday after May Day found the main street lined with townspeople and villagers crying that they were ringing the old bailiff out. With the bells pealing and a band murdering Weber, a procession of children and garlanded maidens and their partners danced round a maypole hung with flowers and green boughs and set with dolls. Behind came the bailiff with his mace, the burgesses in their robes and nosegays, and their friends in Sunday clothes, and soldiers lined the way at the churchyard gate. After service they walked round the bounds of the town and ended with a dinner, ringing out the old bailiff and ringing in the new.