On the other hand, the mediaeval period had its dramatic or semi-dramatic performances in which St. George figured, and possibly it is to these, and not to the ‘seven champions,’ that his introduction into the sword-dance is due. These performances generally took the form of a ‘riding’ or procession on St. George’s day, April 23. Such ridings may, of course, have originally, like the Godiva processions or the midsummer shows, have preserved the memory of the pre-Christian perambulations of the fields in spring, but during the period for which records are available they were rather municipal celebrations of a semi-ecclesiastical type. St. George was the patron saint of England, and his day was honoured as one of the greater feasts, notably at court, where the chivalric order of the Garter was under his protection[771]. The conduct of the ridings was generally, from the end of the fourteenth century onwards, in the hands of a guild, founded not as a trade guild, but as a half social, half religious fraternity, for the worship of the saint, and the mutual aid and good fellowship of its members. The fullest accounts preserved are from Norwich where the guild or company of St. George was founded in 1385, received a charter from Henry V in 1416, and by 1451 had obtained a predominant share in the government of the city[772]. The records of this guild throw a good deal of light on the riding. The brethren and ‘sustren’ had a chapel in the choir of the cathedral, and after the Reformation held their feasts in a chapel of the common hall of the city, which had formerly been the church of a Dominican convent. The riding was already established by 1408 when the court of the guild ordered that ‘the George shall go in procession and make a conflict with the Dragon and keep his estate both days.’ The George was a man in ‘coat armour beaten with silver,’ and had his club-bearer, henchmen, minstrels and banners. He was accompanied by the Dragon, the guild-priest, and the court and brethren of the guild in red and white capes and gowns. The procession went to ‘the wood’ outside the city, and here doubtless the conflict with the dragon took place. By 1537 there had been added to the _dramatis personae_ St. Margaret, also called ‘the lady,’ who apparently aided St. George in his enterprise[773]. Strange to say, the guild survived the Reformation. In 1552, the court ordered, ‘there shall be neither George nor Margaret, but for pastime the dragon to come and show himself, as in other years.’ But the feast continued, and in spite of an attempt to get rid of him under the Long Parliament, the Dragon endured until 1732 when the guild was dissolved. Eighteenth-century witnesses describe the procession as it then existed. The Dragon was carried by a man concealed in its body. It was of basket work and painted cloth, and could move or spread its wings, and distend or contract its head. The ranks were kept by ‘whifflers’ who juggled with