Easter Bread And Cheese

An oíd ceremony which links the present with an epoch as nearly distant as the Norman conquest has been duly observed in the quiet village of Biddenden, in Kent. near Ashford, Englund. Easter was celebrated by the by the vicar and church wardens of cakes of gïngerbread among visitors to the place, wliile the residents were regaled with hunks of breiid and cheese. For nearly 000 years these doles or gifts have been dispensed, although now all idea of charity has practieally disappeared, and the distribution is used more for an occasion of conviviality and ale drinking than for the pious commemoration of the two makls of Biddenden vvho founded the feast. ïhese ladies were Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst, who lived at the beginning of the twelfth century and were joined together like the Siamese twins. One died a daj' after the other, and they left a bit of land, of which the rental is about $200 a year, to perpetúate a fund for the distribution of bread and cheese at Easter. The doles are all stamped with a likeness of the two maids, with their na.mes and the dates of their birth and demise. Many people go to Biddenden for the express purposo of getting a cake and preserving it as a curiosity.