perambulation

Etymology

From Middle English perambulacioun, from Anglo-Norman and Latin; surface analysis is perambulate + -ion or per- + ambulation.

noun

1. (rare) A survey, a tour; a walking around.
   If any Man for that reaſon has an Inclination to divert himſelf, and Sail with me round the Globe, to ſuperviſe almoſt all the Conditions of Humane Life, without being infected with the Vanities, and Vices that attend such a Whimſical Perambulation; let him follow me, who am going to Relate it in a Stile, and Language, proper to the Variety of the Subject: For as the Caprichio came Naturally into my Pericranium, I am reſolv’d to purſue it through Thick and Thin, to enlarge my Capacity for a Man of Buſineſs. 1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, calculated for the Meridian of London, page 10
2. (law) An English legal ceremony in which an official from a town or parish walks around it to delineate and record its boundaries.
   1902, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, published by the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Another forest not named in the perambulation is that of Horwich.
   1929, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, published by the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society The earliest known reference to the stone is that in the perambulation of the parish of Puddletown recorded in the Cartulary of Christchurch Priory.
3. The district thus inspected.