HELSTON FTJERY DAY. 267 



This probably points no further back than to the days of 

 Drake and the Armada, when the sea dogs of Devon and 

 the West were " singeing the King of Spain's beard," as 

 Drake called it. There is a chaffing defiance of the Spanish Don 

 very characteristic of west country feeling in the Armada days. 

 But we have no reason to suppose the Furry Dance may not 

 have existed long before the song was composed. 



Then Robin Hood is characteristic of English May Festival. 

 The thought of Eobin Hood and his merry men is linked with 

 many a May festival. The expression about S. George illustrates 

 how the tutelar saint of Old England was regarded in Cornwall. 



Taken as a whole, then, we may say that the Helston Furry 

 Day is a most interesting relic of Merry England of olden 

 times. Except the dancing in and out of the houses and the 

 furry tune itself, the festival recalls to us the memories of what 

 Chaucer, Spenser and Shakespear must have seen and probably 

 joined in. Still there is a local, and it maybe characteristically 

 Cornish colouring. It is, as I said, probably a survival through 

 the Middle Ages of the antique Celtic greeting for summer. The 

 Furry Day is then a sort of little museum of antique May 

 customs, some very ancient, and others reproducing the memories 

 of merrie England before Puritan days and the Civil AVars, 

 which demolished Maypoles and May festivities. 



Finally, there is one problem on which our Furry Day and 

 other. Cornish survivals may throw a light, i.e. the laws affecting 

 the decay and survivals of ancient customs. 



If I mistake not, ancient customs die out because : — 



1. The motive or cause of them has passed away — they 

 thereby lose vitality. This can hardly be said to be the case 

 with the May customs of rural England. Our Maj^s are as 

 lovely as when Chaucer sang. 



" Merry time it is in May ; 

 The fowles synsfetli her Lay, 

 The knightes loveth the Touruay 

 Maydeus so dauncen and they play." 



May customs have not died out for the samo reason as 

 archery, for IMay is never out of date. 



2. " They have become vulgarized." This has been tlie 

 cause of the destruction of a large section of our English 



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