140 CORNWALL " They returned into Padstow about three o'clock in the morning, and promenaded the streets singing the ' Night Song.' After that they retired to rest for a few hours. At ten o'clock in the morning the ' pairs ' assembled at the ' Golden Lion ' again, and now was brought forth the hobby-horse. The drum-and-fife band was marshalled to precede, and then came the young girls of Padstow dressed in white, with garlands of flowers in their hair, and their white gowns pinned up with flowers. The men followed armed with pistols, loaded with a little powder, which they fired into the air or at the spectators. Lastly came the hobby-horse, ambling, Curvetting, and snapping its jaws. It may be remarked that the Padstow hobby-horse is wonder- fully like the Celtic horse decoration found on old pillars and crosses with interlaced work. The pro- cession went first to Prideaux Place, where the late squire, Mr. Prideaux Brune, always emptied a purse of money into the hands of the ' pairs.' Then the procession visited the vicarage, and was wel- comed by the parson. After that it went forth from the town to Treator Pool * for the horse to drink.'" In Hitchins' History of Cornwall, edited by Samuel Drew, he says of the hobby-horse of
