AN old country saying suggests that autumn begins on the feast of St Bartholomew. This was celebrated yesterday, and in times past St Bartholomew's Day, often known as Bartlemy Day, was one of the key days of the rural year so far as forecasting the weather was concerned.

One belief, associated with the onset of autumn, is that on St Bartholomew's Day we may experience the first dew of the coming season - Bartholomew brings the dew. This is often visible on our neat lawns, or upon spider's webs which glisten in the hedgerows before the sun has produced the heat of this late summer day.

It is also thought that the 40 days of rain, which might have fallen since St Swithin's Day, come to an end on St Bartholomew's Day - it is said that St Bartlemew's mantle wipes dry all the tears St Swithin can cry.

However, it is claimed that if it does rain on St Bartholomew's Day, then we can expect a further 40 days of rain! Furthermore, a misty and foggy morning on Bartlemy's Day does herald a hard winter with lots of cold weather, while If St Bartlemy's be fair and clear, there'll be a prosperous autumn in that year. Another belief is that whatever the weather on St Bartlemy's Day, then it will remain so throughout the coming autumn.

Historic hideaways

Following a Great Ayton reader's odd assertion that priest holes were built for hiding illicit Vatican gold, (D&S letters, July 28), I felt I should comment on this questionable statement.

The persecution of Catholic priests, vide the statute 27, Elizabeth I, was intensified when this law made it treason to be ordained a Catholic priest overseas, the punishment being hanging, drawing and quartering, and the same statute also made it illegal for a Catholic priest to remain in this country for more than 40 days. Because survival of the old faith depended upon celebration of the mass by a properly ordained priest, Catholics of the time were compelled to conceal from the authorities, both their priests and their places of worship.

By chance, it was around the end of the 16th century that many country mansions were being built or extended, and because many of the landowners adhered to the Catholic faith, they began to hide priests within their homes and sometimes incorporate concealed chapels in which mass could be celebrated.

The risks were huge - fines, confiscation of property and death - but as more hiding places were constructed within these large houses, so the government realised what was happening. The harbouring of Catholic priests became a capital offence and pursuivants, specially appointed government officials, were empowered to search suspect homes, large and small, for signs of a hidden priest - for a cash reward.

The pursuivants knew that hiding places were in barns, farms, large country houses and castles, and that they could be built into chimneys, floors, walls and staircases.

As the pursuivants gained more knowledge of the location of such hiding places, so they began to capture an increasing number of priests. One technique was very simple - because the hiding places were so small and devoid of sanitation or a means of obtaining food, the pursuivants made sure that a house search lasted several days. In time, the unfortunate hiding place-occupant was forced to emerge, tired, thirsty, hungry and dirty, and then be taken to his death.

This then led to hiding places becoming more ingenious and the expert in constructing them was a Jesuit priest called Nicholas Owen, code-named Little John.

A carpenter by trade, he became the nation's recognised builder of priests' hiding places and his services were in demand across the country.

Many priests and lay people owed their lives to his skill. He would arrive at a country house on the pretext of installing a new fireplace or arranging some other construction, but would secretly work on a hiding place deep within the fabric of the building.

In 1594, for example, he constructed a hiding place in a mansion at Saffron Walden in Essex; it was 5ft long, 2ft wide and 5ft high, and was concealed within the thickness of a chimney stack near the chapel. The entrance was through a false hearth beneath the attic fireplace.

Owen took the precaution of never making two identical hiding places, one trick being to construct one hiding place within another so that upon finding the first apparently empty, the pursuivants would look no further. Another device was to build two hiding places in the same house.

It was almost inevitable that Nicholas Owen would be caught and in fact he was found hiding in one of his own constructions at Hindlip Castle.

In the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot, along with another priest, he remained in hiding for three days, the pair of them having only a single apple to sustain them during that time.

Owen and his colleague then emerged; it was hoped that by their surrender, further search of the house would then be called off, but it was not. Two more priests emerged from another hiding place in the chimney breast where there was no sanitation, and where they had been unable to stand upright. Both were executed.

Nicholas Owen was tortured in the hope he would reveal the whereabouts of his secret hiding places but he refused and was viciously executed in 1610.

During his flight, Charles II was to benefit from the skills used to smuggle priests into this country; many Catholics were staunch Royalists (although they did not acknowledge the sovereign as head of the church) and in 1651, Charles concealed himself in a priests' hiding place at Mosely Hall in Worcestershire, where the Benedictine chaplain, Fr John Huddleston, helped him flee his persecutors.

When Charles joined the Catholic church on his death bed, it was the same Fr Huddleston who received him.

It is thought there were around 250 priests' hiding places throughout England and Wales, but many were lost as large country houses were demolished or modernised but conversely, as old buildings continue to be structurally altered, so unknown hiding places are discovered.

This region was particularly rich with them; several old houses in the Whitby area, a port used by priests on their return to this country after overseas training, have revealed priest holes.

One was found in an ancient rectory at Ripon, another in a hall at Ugthorpe, while Bridgeholm Green mansion at Egton Bridge (the village missed by the Reformation) sported seven doors - and as pursuivants usually worked in pairs, this assisted a priest to flee from them.

When the persecution of Catholics ended, the need for these hiding places disappeared and it is almost certain that many were forgotten or lost. Some might await discovery - but I doubt if they'll be full of Vatican gold!

It is perhaps worthy of mention, however, that Catholics, in their efforts to avoid prosecution in the penal times, did resort to coded language to conceal their whereabouts and movements. It is distinctly possible that references to gold really meant Catholic priests.

Water watch

We have a bird bath in our garden and in the summer time, it is almost a full-time commitment keeping it full of water for birds with cleanliness on their minds. Visiting birds tend to enjoy themselves so much that they empty the bath in no time!

Pairs of lovesick doves use it, flocks of chirping sparrows arrange a mass bathing session, blackbirds throw bath water all over the place, chaffinches, greenfinches and goldfinches are patrons and we've even had visits from swallows, wagtails, thrushes, robins, dunnocks and magpies.

But why would a wasp visit our bird bath? When I lugged a full watering can across the lawn last night, intent on replenishing the bath water, I was surprised to find a wasp sitting on the edge of the dwindling pool.

It was standing on a dry patch, but its head was over the water and its body was heaving just as if it was drinking deeply.

I wondered if wasps do enjoy an intake of fresh clean water and I waited until this particular visitor had completed his visit, for whatever reason it was doing so. In time, it flew off leaving me to ponder the question - do wasps enjoy a drink of water