large iron pots full of water, in which they placed silver
articles--as spoons, mugs, &c., and then knocked the silver against
the iron with the idea of scaring away all evil spirits.[11]
Sometimes bones were burnt in the fire, for we are told in a quaint
homily on the Feast of St. John Baptist, that bones scared away the
evil spirits in the air, since "wise clerks know well that dragons
hate nothing more than the stink of burning bones, and therefore the
country folk gather as many as they might find, and burned them; and
so with the stench thereof they drove away the dragons, and so they
were brought out of great disease."

In some most remote northern parts of England the farmer lights a
wisp of straw, which he carries round his fields to protect them
from the tare and darnel, the devil and witches. In some places they
used to cover a wheel with straw, set it on fire, and roll it down a
hill. A learned writer on antiquities tells us that the people
imagined that all their ill-luck rolled away from them together with
this burning wheel. All these customs are relics of the old fire and
sun worship, to which our forefathers were addicted. Wrestling,
running races, and dancing were afterwards practised by the
villagers. Wrestling is a very ancient sport, and the men of
Cornwall and Devon, of Westmoreland and Cumberland, were famous for
their skill. A "Cornish hug" is by no means a tender embrace.
Sometimes the people bore back to their homes boughs of trees, with
which they adorned their doors and windows. At Oxford the
quadrangle of Magdalen College was decorated with boughs on St.
John's Day, and a sermon preached from the stone pulpit in the
corner of the quadrangle; this was meant to represent the preaching
of St. John the Baptist in the wilderness.