Bonefires before shops on St Peter’s Eve

On St Peter’s Eve, as on Midsummer Eve and some other nights, people made bonfires in front of their shops and houses. Bourne supposed they were called bonefires because they had once been built of bones, following Belethus, who said a pyre of bones was burnt so that its smoke would drive off the dragons that poisoned the wells. He thought such fires lawful as tokens of joy and good neighbourhood, but not when they led to late hours and hard drinking.