Breock was now an old man, and could not walk, so his companions made
for him a sort of cart in which he could sit, and in which they drew
him about. One day they left him to sing psalms in his cart whilst they
were engaged at a distance over some pressing business. When they
returned they found a pack of wolves round the old man, but whether his
sanctity, or toughness, kept them from eating him is left undecided.
They drove the wolves off, and were careful in future not to leave him
unattended. Conan, the chief, who lived at Pencarrow, came to know him,
and, if we may believe the _Life_, was baptised by him, and made him a
grant of land; this is S. Breock on the opposite side of the river to
Pencarrow, where there is an interesting church in a lovely situation.
It is only a coincidence that at the foot of Pencarrow is a chapel
bearing Conan's name. It is dedicated to a tenth-century bishop.
From Cornwall Breock departed for Brittany, about the year 500, and
died there at an advanced age--over ninety--about 510.
Padstow should be visited on May Day. It is one of the few places where
the hobby-horse still prances; but the glory of the old May Feast is
much curtailed.
During the days that precede the festival no garden is safe. Walls,
railings, even barbed wire, are surmounted by boys and men in quest of
flowers. Conservatories have to be fast locked, or they will be
invaded. The house that has a show of flowers in the windows is
besieged by pretty children with roguish eyes begging for blossoms
which they cannot steal.
During the evening before May Day in years gone by, before shipbuilding
had ceased to be an industry of Padstow, when the shipwrights left work
they brought with them from the yard two poles, and carried them up the
street, fastened one above the other, decorated at the top with
branches of willow, furze, sycamore, and all kinds of spring flowers
made into garlands, and from it were suspended strings of gulls' eggs.
There hung from it also long streamers of coloured ribbon.
A pit was dug, and the Maypole secured by ropes fastened to stakes. In
the pavement was a cross laid in with paving stones differently
coloured from the rest in the street; these were taken up every time
the Maypole was planted, to be again relaid when the merry-making was
over. But a doctor who lived in the house facing the pole objected, and
so opposed the planting of the Maypole and the dancing before his door,
that the merry-makers moved to an open space somewhat higher up the
street, which was much less convenient. Opposition followed them even
there, and a few years ago the Maypole was finally abandoned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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