HELSTON and populous, with four spacious streets, a handsome church, and a good trade ". The ancient tradition is that its port was ruined by the doomed Tregeagle spilling his burden of sand at the mouth of the estuary, and so bio king the entrance. The church admired by Defoe, dedicated to St. Michael, was destroyed by lightning ; it was rebuilt in 1 763. More interesting than the church is the old grammar- school, at which Derwent Coleridge, son of the poet, was once head-master, and Charles Kingsley scholar. At the entrance to the old bowling-green, where formerly stood a castle, is a granite memorial to W. M. Grylls ; and at a little distance is Penrose, the ancient seat of the Penroses, who held jurisdiction over the Loe Pool, and had to receive a nominal pay- ment at the annual cutting through of its bar. The main street of Helston is rendered musical and clean by rills of water running perpetually down its gutters, as at Truro. It is not in reality a very interesting place, but it derives lustre from its old May-tide celebration (8th May), known as Furry or Flora Day. This observance is of immemorial antiquity, and has lately been revived after a period of neglect. The people go out in the early morning to the fields to gather garlands and branches ; with these they return and, forming couples, dance through the houses, in at the front door, out at the back. The tune to which they dance, and which resounds through Helston from morning to night, is a kind of hornpipe, I 129
