[516] J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 303, quoting the author of the Survey of the South of Ireland, p. 232.

[517] J. Brand, op. cit. i. 305, quoting the author of the Comical Pilgrim’s Pilgrimage into Ireland (1723), p. 92.

[518] The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lxv. (London, 1795) pp. 124 sq. The writer dates the festival on June 21st, which is probably a mistake.

[519] T.F.  Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), pp. 321 sq., quoting the Liverpool Mercury of June 29th, 1867.

[520] L.L.  Duncan, “Further Notes from County Leitrim,” Folk-lore, v. (1894) p. 193.

[521] A.C.  Haddon, “A Batch of Irish Folk-lore,” Folk-lore, iv. (1893) pp. 351, 359.

[522] G.H.  Kinahan, “Notes on Irish Folk-lore,” Folk-lore Record, iv. (1881) p. 97.

[523] Charlotte Elizabeth, Personal Recollections, quoted by Rev. Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons (Edinburgh, 1853), p. 53.

[524] Lady Wilde, Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland (London, 1887), i. 214 sq.

[525] T.F.  Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), pp. 322 sq., quoting the Hibernian Magazine, July 1817.  As to the worship of wells in ancient Ireland, see P.W.  Joyce, A Social History of Ancient Ireland (London, 1903), i. 288 sq., 366 sqq.

[526] Rev. A. Johnstone, describing the parish of Monquhitter in Perthshire, in Sir John Sinclair’s Statistical Account of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1791-1799), xxi. 145.  Mr. W. Warde Fowler writes that in Scotland “before the bonfires were kindled on midsummer eve, the houses were decorated with foliage brought from the woods” (Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, London, 1899, pp. 80 sq.).  For his authority he refers to Chambers’ Journal, July, 1842.

[527] John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, edited by A. Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1888), ii. 436.

[528] Rev. Mr. Shaw, Minister of Elgin, in Pennant’s “Tour in Scotland,” printed in John Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels (London, 1808-1814), iii. 136.

[529] A. Macdonald, “Midsummer Bonfires,” Folk-lore, xv. (1904) pp. 105 sq.

[530] From notes kindly furnished to me by the Rev. J.C.  Higgins, parish minister of Tarbolton.  Mr. Higgins adds that he knows of no superstition connected with the fire, and no tradition of its origin.  I visited the scene of the bonfire in 1898, but, as Pausanias says (viii. 41. 6) in similar circumstances, “I did not happen to arrive at the season of the festival.”  Indeed the snow was falling thick as I trudged to the village through the beautiful woods of “the Castle o’ Montgomery” immortalized by Burns.  From a notice in The Scotsman of 26th June, 1906 (p. 8) it appears that the old custom was observed as usual that year.