On the Saturdays preceding these feasts large quantities of "plum
cake" are baked; light currant cakes raised with barm (yeast), and
coloured bright yellow with saffron (as dear as "saffern" is a very
common simile in Cornwall). Every family, however poor, tries to
have a better dinner than usual on feasten Sunday, generally a joint
of meat with a "figgy pudden" (a baked or boiled suet-pudding with
raisins in it). The "saffern cake" at tea is often supplemented with
"heavy cake," a delicacy peculiar to Cornwall; it is a rich currant
paste, about an inch thick, made with clotted cream, and is eaten hot.
The Western hounds meet in all the villages situated at a convenient distance from their kennel, at ten o'clock on feasten Mondays, after a breakfast given by the squire of the parish to the huntsmen. They start for their run from somewhere near the parish church (the "church town"). Three or four houses clustered together, and even sometimes a single house, is called in Cornwall a town, a farmyard is a town place, and London is often spoken of as "Lunnon church town."
The first of the West Penwith feasts is that of Paul, a parish close to Penzance, which has not the Apostle Paul but St. Pol-de-Leon for its patron saint. It falls on the nearest Sunday to 10th October. An old proverb says, "Rain for Paul, rain for all," therefore, should the day be wet, it is of course looked upon by the young people as a bad sign for their future merry-makings. Some families fix on this day as the one for beginning their winter fires. An annual bowling-match was formerly held here on feasten Monday, between Paul and Mousehole men (Mousehole is a fishing village in the same parish); the last of them took place sixty years ago. Up to that time the bowling-green, an artificially raised piece of ground, was kept in order by the parishioners. No one in the neighbourhood now knows the game, the church schools are built on a part of the site, the remainder is the village playground. If there were ever any other peculiar customs celebrated at Paul feast they are quite forgotten, and the Monday night's carousal at the public-houses has here, as elsewhere, given place to church and chapel teas, followed by concerts, in the school-rooms, although there are still a few "standings" (stalls) in the streets, for the sale of gingerbread nuts and sweetmeats, and
