SHROVE-TUESDAY, is the Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday, or the day immediately preceding the first of Lent; being so called from the Saxon word /brise, which signifies "to confess." Hence Shrove-Tuesday signifies Confession-Tuesday; on which day all the people in every parish throughout England (during the Romish times) were obliged to confess their sins, one by one, to their own parish priests, in their own parish-churches; and, that this might be done the more regularly, the great bell in every parish was rung at ten o'clock (or perhaps sooner), that it might be heard by all, and that they might attend, according to the custom then in use. And though the Romish religion has now given way to the Protestant religion, the custom of ringing the great bell in our ancient parish-churches, at least in some of them, still remains, and obtains in and about London the name of Pancake bell; perhaps, because after the confession it was customary for the several persons to dine on pancakes or fritters. Most churches, churches, indeed, have rejected that custom of ringing the bell on Shrove-Tuesday; but the usage of dining on pancakes or fritters, and such like provision, still continues.