OF CORNWALL. , OJ 
an exertion of all the faculties of the body, cannot but be of great 
ufe to fupple, flrengthen, and particularly tend to prepare it for all 
the exercifes of the camp. 
Thefe two cuftoms of wreftling and hurling were formerly much 
more ufed than at prefent, and ’tis great pity that frolicking and 
drinking immoderately ( if what is faid be true ) at the parifh fefti- 
vals fhould take place of fuch ancient, and (under a few regula- 
tions) fuch laudable and manly recreations. The particular rules 
and cuftoms by which thefe two paftimes are directed, and the dif- 
ferent manners in which they are practifed, cannot be more diftin&ly 
related than the reader (who defires to be acquainted with them 
more minutely) will find in Mr. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall 
(Edit. i. page 74). There is no ftated time for hurlings and 
wreftlings, but they are generally part of their feftival entertain- 
ments. Every parifh has its annual feaft, and at fuch time (how- 
ever poor at other times of the year) every one will make a fhift to 
entertain his friends and relations on the Sunday ; on the Monday 
and Tuefday all bufinefs is fufpended, and the young men aflem- 
ble and hurl or wreftle, or both, in fome part of their parifh of the 
moft public refort. 
Thefe feafts inflituted in memory of the dedication of their sect. xi. 
parochial Church, were of great efteem among the primitive Parifh feafts. 
Chriftians, and originally kept on that Saint’s day to whofe memory 
the Church was dedicated : the munificence of the founder, and 
endower of the church, was at the fame time celebrated, and a 
particular fervice compofed for the occafion c . On the eve of that 
day there were prayers all night in the Church, and hymns fung 
in memory of the Saint, and the dedication made to him. From 
thefe watchings, the feftivals were called Wakes, and the name ftill 
continues in many parts of England, though the cuflom whence it 
arofe has been long abolifhed. The inconveniency of obferving 
thefe feftivals on the Saint’s day being fenfibly felt (efpecially in 
harveft time), they were by the fpecial authority of the Bifhop 
transferred to the next following Sunday, and this innovation 
occafioned the injunction of the twenty-eighth of Henry VIII. 
that the feaft of the dedication of churches fhould be celebrated 
in all places of this realm on the firft Sunday in October for 
ever, and upon no other day. This injunction was complied with 
in fome places, but never univerfally admitted, cuftom in this cafe 
prevailing againft Law. Thefe feafts are much exclaimed againft 
by thofe who diftinguifh not, as they ought, between the inftitution, 
c See Durandus Rationale Divin. lib. vn. fol. 251, and Dugdale’s Warwickshire. 
4 H 
and 
