light these fires on St. John's Eve (June 23rd), and up to the present time a stranger is surprised to see on this day, as evening approaches, fires springing up in all directions around him, accompanied with the blowing of horns and other rejoicings.[39] Macpherson notices the _Beltein_ ceremonies in Ireland, and adds, "Beltein is also observed in Lancashire." On Horwich Moor are two heaps of stones, or cairns, which are called by the country people "The Wilder Lads." It is believed that on May Day Eve the Druids made prodigious fires on cairns, situated as these are, on lofty eminences, which being every one in sight of some other like fire, symbolized a universal celebration. These fires were in honour of _Beal_, or _Bealan_, latinized into _Belenus_, by which name the Gauls and their colonies denoted the sun; and to this time the first day of May is by the Irish called _La Bealtine_, or the Day of Belen's Fire. It bears a like name among the Highlanders of Scotland, and in the Isle of Man.[40] The last evening in October was called the "Teanlay Night," or "The Fast of All Souls." At the close of that day, till of late years, the hills which encircle the Fylde shone brightly with many a bonfire; the mosses of Marton, &c., rivalling them with their fires, kindled for the avowed object of succouring their friends, whose souls were supposed to be detained in purgatory. A field near Poulton in which the mummery of the "Teanlay" was once celebrated (a circle of men standing with bundles of straw, raised on high with forks), is named "Purgatory" by the old inhabitants. Formerly this custom was not confined to one village or town of the Fylde district, but was generally practised as a sacred ceremony.[41] BOGGARTS, GHOSTS, AND HAUNTED PLACES. What is a Boggart? A sort of ghost or sprite. But what is the meaning of the word Boggart? Brand says that "in the northern parts of England, ghost is pronounced _gheist_ and _guest_. Hence _bar-guest_, or _bar-gheist_. Many streets are haunted by a guest, who assumes many strange appearances, as a mastiff-dog, &c. It is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon _gast_, spiritus, anima." Brand might have added that _bar_ is a term for gate in the north, and that all the gates of York are named "bars," so that a _bar-gheist_ is literally a gate-ghost; and many are the tales of strange appearances suddenly seen perched on the top of a gate or fence, whence they sometimes leaped upon the shoulders of the scared passenger. Drake, in his _Eboracum_, says (Appendix, p. 7), "I have been so frightened with stories of the _barguest_ when I was a child, that I cannot help throwing away an etymology upon it. I suppose it comes from Anglo-Saxon _burh_, a town, and _gast_, a ghost, and so signifies a town sprite. N.B.--_Guest_ is in the Belgic and Teutonic softened into _gheist_ and _geyst_." The "Boggart Hole" therefore means the hollow haunted by the bar-gheist or gate-ghost. BOGGART HOLE CLOUGH.