Staffordshire
Formerly, at Lichfield, the clergyman of the parish, accompanied by the churchwardens and sidesmen and followed by a concourse of children bearing green boughs, repaired to different reservoirs of water and there read the gospel for the day, after which they were regaled with cakes and ale; during the ceremony the door of every house was decorated with an elm bough. This custom was founded on one of the early institutions of Christianity, that of blessing the springs and wells.—Account of Lichfield, 1818-19, p. 133.