In Dorsetshire Hallowe'en was celebrated by the ringing of bells in memory of the dead. King Henry VIII and later Queen Elizabeth issued commands against this practice.
In Lancashire in the early nineteenth century people used to go about begging for candles to drive away the gatherings of witches. If the lights were kept burning till midnight, no evil influence could remain near.
In Derbyshire, central England, torches of straw were carried about the stacks on All Souls' Eve, not to drive away evil spirits, as in Scotland, but to light souls through Purgatory.
Like the Bretons, the English have the superstition that the dead return on Hallowe'en.
Alone in the night?'
'I am waiting for one who will come, stranger,
To show him a light.
He will see me afar on the road,
"'Have you no fear in your heart, woman,
To stand there alone?
