!08 
NATURE NOTES. 
was believed, and perhaps is still believed, that a sprig of St. 
John’s wort gathered before sunrise would protect a house from 
being struck by lightning; and in Norway and Sweden, as well 
as in Germany, bunches of St. John’s wort were gathered on St. 
John’s eve and hung above doorways, or placed upon roofs, as 
a protection against witches. The same custom held good in 
England, and the sunny flowers that so gaily decked the houses 
on the eve of St. John, both in town and country, were lighted 
up by the blazing midsummer fires. Barnaby Googe says ; — 
“ Then doth the joyfull feast of John the Baptist take his turne, 
^Vhen bonfiers gre^t, with loftie flame, in every towne doe burne ; 
And yong men round about with maides doe daunce in every streete, 
AVith garlands wrought of motherwort, or else with vervain sweete.” 
It is most interesting to trace the universal connexion of 
the idea of light and of fire with tire festival of St. John — the 
prophet of fire. Even on this evening, as I drew nearer to the 
village that was my destination, I heard a sudden sound of 
shouting, and saw the blaze of a bonfire that had been kindled 
on a bit of waste land by some of the village boys. I cannot 
say that it was anything but a coincidence, the boys were guilt- 
less of any thought or desire of keeping up an old custom, but 
as I watched the flames and smoke mounting up, it was not 
difficult to imagine myself back in those days, when, as we are 
told — 
“ In worshyp of Saint Johan the people waked at home, and 
made three maner of fyres : one was dene bones and noo woode, 
and that is called a bonefyre ; another is dene woode and no 
bones, and that is called a wood-fyre ; the third is made of svode 
and bones, and it is called Saynt johannys fyre The 
seconde fyre was made of woode, for that wyll brenne lyght and 
wyll be seen farre. For it is the chefe of fyre to be seen farre, 
and betokennynge that Saynt Johan was a lanterne of lyght to 
the people. Also the people made biases of fyre, for that they 
shoulde be seene farre, and specyally in the nyght, in token of 
St. Johan's having been seen from far in the spirit b)^ Jeremiah. 
The third fyre of bones betokenneth Johan’s martyrdom, for hys 
bones were brente.” 
For many centuries the bonfires of St. John’s eve were held 
in the greatest esteem, and like the flowers of the St. John’s 
wort were supposed to dispel every kind of evil. And there 
seem to be traces of the same idea, as regards the efficacy of 
fire-lighting, in the midsummer watches, when processions of 
constables and others marched through the streets of London 
with lighted cressets, and also in the illumination of the houses. 
“ On the vigil of St. John Baptist,” writes Stowe, “ every 
man’s doore being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St. 
* [Brand quotes this “ from the Homily De Festo Sancti Johannis BaptistceT 
but gives no further clue by which it may be traced. — E d. N. A'".] 
