Today Monday 24 August is St Bartholomew’s Day which means that the forty days of rain or sun promised on St Swithun’s Day 15 July is completed.
Maybe we had the forty days plus of sun a little early. Rain came to Winchester, where St Swithun is patron, last week after 68 dry days.
Saint Swithun’s day, if thou be fair, for forty days it will remain; Saint Swithun’s day, if thou bring rain, for forty days it will remain
The rhyme has many variants and only dates from the late 13th century. St Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, died in 862.
Ben Jonson highlighted the claim and Jane Austen’s last work was a poem about St Swithun and rain written three days before her death.
The forty days, when allowing for the 18th-century change of calendar, relates to a mainly dry or wet August.
There is a St Bartholomew church on the PW at Hyde Abbey near the edge of Winchester and at Otford where the London and Winchester routes meet.
The body of St Swithun was at Winchester Cathedral whilst Canterbury Cathedral held an arm of St Bartholomew.
