The Eton Bonfire for St Thomas

The translation of the relics of St Thomas Becket was kept on 7 July. The Eton school rules of 1560, which Brand quotes from manuscript, say that on this feast the boys used to build a bonfire, though they did not deck their beds or make verses as on some other feasts, and might play if the master pleased. W. Kethe, preaching at Blandford Forum in 1570, recalled that in papal times fires had been lit not only on the eves of St John the Baptist and St Peter and St Paul but also on that of Becket. The same Eton rules give the boys a great bonfire on St Peter’s Day.