“Have you beheld, when people pray At St. John’s well on Patron-Day, By charm of priest and miracle, To cure diseases at this well; The valleys filled with blind and lame, And go as limping as they came.” 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. [57] Wood-Martin, _loc. cit._, ii., p. 80. [58] _Standing Stones and Maeshowe of Stenness_, by Magnus Spence, p. 13. [59] That is from W. to E. through N., or E. to W. through S.; in the same direction as the hands of a clock. [60] _The Dolmens of Ireland_, i., p. 3. [61] _Ibid._, pp. 95, 765. [62] _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh_, i., p. 332. [63] Borlase, _loc. cit._, p. 760. [64] _Ibid._, p. 426. [65] Rhys, _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh_, p. 363. [66] _Pagan Ireland_, p. 160. [67] Rhys, _Celtic Folklore, Manx and Welsh_, i., pp. 354, 356, 357, &c. [68] Rhys, _ibid._, p. 332. [69] _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 78. [70] Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 351. [71] Sikes, _idem._, p. 329.