Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/570

 procession, the owners of the land at the time, or those afterwards claiming their title from them, were shut out from making any alteration in the terminal marks, monuments, or lines. In case an altercation arose between two neighbors in the course of the processioning, as to the boundaries of their estates, the two surveyors who always accompanied the procession were required, in sight of the assembled people, to draw again the lines in dispute, and if a conflict in the original surveys were shown, the difference was to be equitably adjusted and the bounds thus laid off were to be accepted as permanent. The area which was to be covered by a procession was designated by the vestry of each parish for the domain in their special jurisdiction. The time first assigned for the performance of the duty of processioning was in the interval between Easter and Whitsuntide, but in the latter part of the seventeenth century, it was advanced to the interval between the 7th of September and the 31st of March, a period during which the planters were most at leisure, as their crops had been gathered in, and in most cases sold. Moreover, during this section of the year, the physical obstacles were less serious, as the trees were now devoid of leaves, and the thickets and undergrowth were more easily penetrated in consequence. The supreme importance of processioning in the view of the law is revealed in the requirement that all persons who, without having a sound excuse to offer, failed to take part in it, were exposed to a fine of three hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco.