One of the main points about our London walks is that we guarantee to go whatever the weather. As we put it “we go rain shine and especially in thick, thick fog.”
London is a lovely City and some of her historic buildings take on a lustrous shine in wet weather. Walking in the rain can be especially rewarding as you get to literally see London in another light.
Of course walking through the city’s historic streets is great when the sun’s shining and the streets are dry, but unlike cricket and tennis, we can honestly say that, as far as our London walks go, rain most certainly doesn’t stop play!
But today we will be watching the sky with a slight tinge of anxiety. The reason? Today is St Swithin’s day and there is that old, old tradition that if it rains today then it will keep raining for the next 40 days.
Now the guides who lead our London walking tours have this City in their blood as it were. They have battled through all kinds of weather taking our hardy clients on our popular London walks. But forty days of rain (especially as it would be falling when we take our holidays) isn’t a prospect we tend to relish.
So, since St Swithin’s Court is one of the locations that features on our historic City of London walks, we thought it might be nice today to explain where the tradition came from that if it rains today, July 15th, then you’d best invest in a pretty strong umbrella as it’s going to be seeing a lot of use.
As Swithin, who was a Bishop of Winchester, lay dying, he instructed his followers to bury him in the churchyard and not in the church.
They complied with this request, and for a hundred years rain from the church roof fell upon the modest grave, whilst the feet of passers-by trampled over his bones.
In the year, AD964 the Winchester clergy became filled with remorse. Surely it was not right, they argued, that such a distinguished member of their fraternity should lie in an almost a nameless grave. The matte, they decided, must be put right at once.
On July 15th, therefore, the monks assembled to exhume the dead St Swithin and carry the remains to the cathedral for re-interment beneath the high altar.
But no sooner had the ceremony begun than the heavens opened and the rain came down in torrents. The monks stampeded to shelter, and there they remained for forty days not daring to leave the monastery.
Meanwhile the grave of the pious man was washed incessantly by the stream of water from the eaves.
There was much heart-searching in the refectory as monks sat down to their meals by the light of candles. The wind shrieked and the rain peppered and cleaned the grimy window-panes.
It was clear that the storm was a visitation which had prevented them from carrying out a particularly blasphemous act.
At the end of six weeks, when the storm had subsided they proceeded to build a chapel over the grave, and it was here that many remarkable miracles were performed.
From this story,which, of course, is apocryphal, was built up the tradition:-
St. Swithin’s Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain :
St. Swithin’s Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.
So there in a nutshell is the story of how the tradition came about. However, we do know that on the 15th July 964 a great feast was held to celebrate the moving of St Swithin’s relics to a more suitable and reverential resting place.
As far as can be ascertained the ceremony was actually held in brilliant sunshine, beneath a blue sky with not a cloud in sight.
So if it does rain today it probably won’t be the end of the world (metaphorically speaking) as far as our London walks are concerned.
But we will, nonetheless, be casting nervous glances upwards from time to time just in case!
Tags: London walks, St Swithin, St Swithin's Day, Winchester
