3. “Thou might’st ha’ shown thy knavish face and tarried at home, O!
But thou shalt be a rascal, and shalt wear the horns, O!
4. “Up flies the kite, down falls the lark, O!
Aunt Ursula Birdwood she had an old ewe.
5. “Aunt Ursula Birdwood she had an old ewe,
And she died in her own park long ago.”
It is obvious that the song is very corrupt, but the air to this and to the “Morning Song” are very bold and ancient.[15]
Although the Maypole has been given up, the hobby-horse still prances on May Day.
Padstow Harbour is spoiled by the Doom Bar, a shifting bank of sand at the mouth. But this might be placed under control and rectified by the expenditure of money, and the mouth of the Hayle be made into what is sorely needed, a harbour of refuge on the north coast.
The neighbourhood of Padstow abounds in interest; the cliffs are superb, towering above a sea blue as a peacock’s neck, here and there crowned with cliff castles. In the sand-dunes or Towans is the buried church of S. Constantine, a convert of S. Petrock, Duke or King of Cornwall, who was so ballyragged by Gildas. There are old Cornish mansions, such as Treshunger, lying in dips among trees; and churches on wind-blown heights, their towers intended as landmarks.