THE LIZARD
Properly it is not the Lizard at all, but Meneage, i.e. the land of the Minachau, the monks. Lizard—Lis-arth, the high-placed or lofty Lis(court)—applies merely to the head and point where stands now Lizard Town, and where was formerly the enclosed court of a prince of the district, or perhaps that of the Irish monks, who occupied the region and appropriated it.
It is almost an island, for the Helford river runs up to Gweek, five miles from the Helston river, that opens into Loe Pool.
Helston is not a particularly interesting place in itself. It consists of a long street leading to the old bowling-green, which is preserved, and stands above the ravine of the Cober (Gael. cobhair, foam), where is an archway to William Millett Grylls, designed for execution in sugar-candy and executed in granite.
What makes Helston interesting is the annual observance of the Furry Day, on May 8th. It has been often described. The morning is ushered in by a peal of bells from the church tower, and at about nine o’clock the people assemble and demand their prescriptive holiday. They then collect donations, and repair to the fields “to bring home the May.”
About noon they return, carrying flowers and branches, and a procession of dancing couples is formed at the Town Hall; and this proceeds down the town, dancing in at the front door of every house and out at the back, and so along their way, with a band preceding them, performing the traditional Furry Dance tune, which is not of any remarkable age, being a hornpipe. The dancers first trip in couples, hand in hand, during the first part of the tune, forming a string of from thirty to forty couples, or perhaps more; at the second part of the tune the first gentleman turns, with both hands, the lady behind him, and her partner turns in like manner as the first lady; then each gentleman turns his own partner, and they trip on as before. The other couples pair and turn in the same way and at the same time.
It is considered a slight to pass a house and not to dance through it. Finally the train enters the Assembly Room, and there resolves itself into an ordinary waltz.
As soon as the first party has finished another goes through the same evolutions, and then another, and so on; and it is not till late at night that the town returns to its peaceful propriety.
The dancers on the first day are the gentlemen and ladies. The servants go through the same proceedings on the morrow.
I have given both the song and tune in my Songs of the West.