She had to abjure these sentiments publicly. But if the ordinary citizens’ wives commonly talked in this manner, the way was surely rapidly being prepared for the Reformation. In 1530—very shortly before the end—one Dr. Crown, being questioned as to heresy, said, “I will say again, do your duty and then your devotion ... when thou comest at the Day of Judgment, He will not say unto thee ‘why wentest thou not to Wilsdon a pilgrimage?’ He will say unto thee ‘I was an hungred and thou gavest me no meat: I was nakyd and thou gavest me no clothys’: and soche lyke.” In September 1538 all the images—those of Walsingham, Ipswich, Worcester, the Lady of Willesden, the Lady of Muswell, the Lady “that standeth in the Oak,” and many others—were brought up to London and publicly burned at Chelsea. Then the Fair, which went on all through the summer, with noisy taverns, drunken men, disorderly women, music, dancing, singing, tumblers, and minstrels, at Willesden, Muswell, and other unknown places “in the Oake,” came to a sudden end. Silence set in, and Willesden Church became the church of a little secluded village in the midst of the Forest; the road to Muswell through the woods became overgrown and forgotten, and nobody in the next generation knew where stood the oak with its sacred image, which had attracted so many thousands every year. Besides these shrines of London, with their miraculous Virgins, there were the Holy and wonder-working Roods, of which the most important seems to have been that of Bermondsey Abbey. There were, also, objects of pilgrimage, of votive offering, and of prayer, the Holy Wells of which some 500 have been enumerated in England, and round London no fewer than sixteen. The origin of Holy Wells is a subject that belongs to archæology and scholarship; nor indeed is this the place for an examination into the subject. Streams, rivers, fountains, springs, have all been accounted holy, and possessed each its nymph or its god, who demanded sacrifice. Wells were dressed with flowers: they were used for divination; long before Christianity newly-born children were passed through water; coins have been found by the hundred in wells where they were thrown in order to read an oracle from the troubling of the waters; there were superstitions about the springs; there were superstitions about water drawn on certain nights; there were wishing wells; there were wakes of the well; it was in some places held necessary that converts should be baptized in clear running water. Wells cured different diseases: one was good for the eye, and one for the ear. Wells sprung up miraculously to mark the site of a martyrdom, and so on. The holy wells of London were as follows:— 1. Clerkenwell. This well, where the parish clerks held their plays, was situated at the edge of Clerkenwell Green and on the south-east corner of Ray Street. The Green stretched north-west of St. John’s Priory Church.