On Sat, 26 Aug 2000 12:34:07 +0100 Tim Henderson
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Elizabethan Injunctions made reference to the private holy
> days of brewers. (I guess shoemakers had Crispin Crispian and
> smiths had Clement ). Does anyone know who the brewers
> honoured ?
In The Oxford Companion to the Year, we have Wenceslaus
(Václav) of Bohemia (28 Sept.) as patron saint of the Czech Republic
and therefore of brewers (though he himself produced wine for
mass from his own vineyards). Sorry, I can't remember where I got
that.
However, for England it might be St Dunstan: there is a charming
late legend among farmers in south-east Devonshire that was
reported in Notes & Queries, 2nd ser., xii (1861), 303:
St. Dunstan bought up a quantity of barley, and therewith made
beer. The Devil, knowing that the saint would naturally desire to
get a good sale for the article which he had just brewed, went to
him and said--That if he (the saint) would sell himself to him (the
Devil), the latter would go and blight all the apple trees; so that
there should be no cider, and consequently there would be a great
demand for beer. St. Dunstan, wishing to drive a brisk trade in the
article in which he had just become interested, accepted the offer;
but stipulated that the trees should be blighted in three days, which
days fell on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of May. In the Almanacs we see
that the19th is marked as St. Dunstan's Day. [We have Dunstan
under the 19th, but the legend under the 17th.]
Bonnie Blackburn
-------------------
Bonnie Blackburn
67 St Bernard's Road
Oxford OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808
fax +44 (0)1865 512237
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|