I50 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 191 1 



legend localised at Deerhurst ? Mr Sidney Hartland' thinks 

 that it may have arisen from a broken stone, roughly carved 

 into something like a dragon's head, which projects from the 

 wall of the tower of the Church over the west doorway. Or 

 may we assume that there was some prehistoric cult of a dragon 

 at Deerhurst, and a celebration of the Midsummer festival at 

 which the dragon was supposed to claim a victim ? 



We have indications of similar cults of water spirit sat 

 the sacred wells which are numerous in the district, many of 

 which were, in the natural course of things taken over by 

 Christianity. At Acton and Wick are wells dedicated to the 

 Blessed Virgin. One at Bagendon is famous for curing sore 

 eyes, and another at Pucklechurch has the same reputation. 

 At the well in the parish of Barnsley, young men used to meet 

 on St. John's Eve for wrestling, singing and music, a fact 

 which points to a periodical or seasonal propitiation of the 

 water spirit. 



The famous Cotteswold Games, which were held on 14th 

 May, near Chipping Campden, are said to have been instituted 

 in the time of James I. by a spirited public attorney of Burton- 

 on-the-Heath in Warwickshire, named Robert Dover. Even 

 if this be the case, the date and character of these celebrations 

 suggest that they originally represented a seasonal feast, 

 perhaps sporadically performed from the earliest times and 

 reorganised at the time of the Stuarts. One survival of them 

 is found in the assemblage at Cooper's Hill on Ascension Mon- 

 day, when cheeses are rolled down the hill. I hope it is not 

 rash to connect this with the customs which have been so fully 

 investigated by Dr Frazer,^ in which wheels with lights attach- 

 ed to them were rolled down hills as a mimetic charm to produce 

 sunshine, the wheel with its lights typifying the orb of the 

 sun. In the same way, it was, or is still, the custom to roll 

 three cheeses round Randwick Church on May Day. They 

 were then carried in triumph, cut up on the village green, and 

 distributed among the villagers. Another mimetic charm, 

 apparently with the same object, is that which used to be done 

 at Pauntley, near Newent, on Twelfth Day, when the farmer's 

 servants assembled in a field sown with grain, lit twelve piles 



1 The Legend of Perseus, iii. 54 seq. 



2 The Golden Bough, 2nd ed. iii. 242 seqq. 



