it continued to be practised at Grammont and Mespelaer down
to the second half of the nineteenth century. At Mespelaer, which is a
village near Termonde, a huge pile of eglantine, reeds, and straw was
collected in a marshy meadow for the bonfire; and next evening after
vespers the young folk who had lit it assembled at the "Good Life"
tavern to play the game. The winner was crowned with a wreath of roses,
and the rest danced and sang in a ring about him. At Grammont, while the
bonfire was lit and the dances round it took place on St. Peter's Eve,
the festival of the "Crown of Roses" was deferred till the following
Sunday. The young folk arranged among themselves beforehand who should
be King and Queen of the Roses: the rosy wreaths were hung on cords
across the street: the dancers danced below them, and at a given moment
the wreaths fell on the heads of the chosen King and Queen, who had to
entertain their fellows at a feast. According to some people the fires
of St. Peter, like those of St. John, were lighted in order to drive
away dragons.[492] In French Flanders down to 1789 a straw figure
representing a man was always burned in the midsummer bonfire, and the
figure of a woman was burned on St. Peter's Day.[493] In Belgium people
jump over the midsummer bonfires as a preventive of colic, and they keep
the ashes at home to hinder fire from breaking out.[494]

[The Midsummer fires in England; Stow's description of the Midsummer
fires in London; the Midsummer fires at Eton.]

The custom of lighting bonfires at midsummer has been observed in many
parts of our own country. "On the Vigil of Saint John the Baptist,
commonly called Midsummer Eve, it was usual in most country places, and
also in towns and cities, for the inhabitants, both old and young, and
of both sexes, to meet together, and make merry by the side of a large
fire made in the middle of the street, or in some open and convenient
place, over which the young men frequently leaped by way of frolic, and
also exercised themselves with various sports and pastimes, more
especially with running, wrestling, and dancing. These diversions they
continued till midnight, and sometimes till cock-crowing."[495] In the
streets of London the midsummer fires were lighted in the time of Queen
Elizabeth down to the end of the sixteenth century, as we learn from
Stow's description, which runs thus: "In the months of June and July, on
the vigils of festival days, and on the same fe