At Barnwell (Beirna-well = youths’ well), near Cambridge, the festival took place on St. John’s Day.[82]
Brand, in his history of Newcastle (ii. 54), refers to a well still called Bede’s Well, near Jarrow. “As late as 1740 it was a prevailing custom to bring children troubled with any disease or infirmity; a crooked pin was put in, and the well laved dry between each dipping. My informant has seen twenty children brought together on a Sunday, to be dipped in this well, at which also, on Midsummer Eve, there was a great resort of neighbouring people, with bonfires, music, etc.”
Hope gives references to seven wells dedicated to “St. John,” one to “St. John the Baptist,” and four to St. Peter. These may have been solstitial wells, but the information given is very slight and not to the present point. He states (xxii) that the most important celebrations were first held in May and at the summer solstice. He then adds, “later Easter and Ascensiontide were the favoured seasons.” May, Summer Solstice and Easter was, I think, the true order.
Finally, I may refer to the earliest holy well known to history. This is the famous well at Heliopolis where Rā used to wash himself, and Piankhi, B.C. 740, went and washed his face in it. At this same well the Virgin sat and washed her Son’s swaddling bands in it. Its water made the balsam trees to grow. It is now called by the Arabs “The Fountain of the Sun” ‘Êyn ash-Shems.
[53] The literature that I have chiefly consulted is as follows:—
| R. C. Hope | Holy Wells; their Legends and Traditions. |
| R. L. Quiller-Couch | Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall. |
| W. G. Wood-Martin | Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. |
| G. L. Gomme | Ethnology in Folklore. |
| Prof. Rhys | Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh. |
| W. C. Borlase | Dolmens of Ireland. |
| S. Baring-Gould | A Book of the West. |
[54] Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland, A Folklore Sketch, ii., p. 47.
[55] Pp. 11, 47.
[56] Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh, ii., p. 366.