"Five pounds to be given between such two follower-boys as shall by the same gentlemen be judged to have best conducted themselves of all the follower-boys in the several concerns, in the preceding fishing-season. (A follower is a boat that carries a tuck-net in pilchard-fishing.)
"And Twenty-five pounds, the remainder of the said Fifty, to be divided among all the Friendly Societies in the borough, instituted for the support of the Members in sickness or other calamity, in equal shares. If there be no such Society, the same to be distributed among ten poor persons, five men and five women, inhabitants of the borough, of the age of 64 years or upwards, and who have never received parochial relief."
The first celebration of the Knillian games, which drew a large concourse of people, took place in Knill's lifetime on July 25th, 1801.
The chorus then sung by the 10 virgins was as follows:—
Hasten, virgins, come away:
Hasten to the mountain's brow.
Leave, oh! leave, St. Ives below.
Haste to breathe a purer air,
Virgins fair, and pure as fair.
Quit St. Ives and all her treasures.
Fly her soft voluptuous pleasures.
Fly her sons and all the wiles
Lurking in their wanton smiles;
Fly her splendid midnight halls.
Fly the revels of her balls,
Fly, oh! fly, the chosen seat
Where vanity and fashion meet!
Thither hasten: form the ring,
Round the tomb in chorus sing.'
These games have been repeated every five years up to the present time.
Morvah feast, which is on the nearest Sunday to the 1st August, is said to have been instituted in memory of a wrestling-match, throwing of quoits, &c., which took place there one Sunday, "when there were giants in the land." On the following Monday there was formerly a large fair, and although Morvah is a very small village
