Aug. 18.]

ST. HELEN’S DAY.

This saint gives name to numerous wells in the north of England. Dr. Kuerden, in the middle of the seventeenth century, describing one in the parish of Brindle, says: “To it the vulgar neighbouring people of the Red Letter do much resort with pretended devotion, on each year upon St. Ellin’s Day, where and when, out of a foolish ceremony, they offer, or throw into the well, pins, which, there being left, may be seen a long time after by any visitor of that fountain.” A similar custom was observed some years ago by the visitors of St. Helen’s well in Sefton, but more in accordance with an ancient practice than from any devotion to the saint.—Baines, History of County of Lancaster, 1836, vol. iii. p. 497; Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. pp. 336, 337.