An old lady, a native of Scilly, once gave me a most graphic description of her mother and aunt laying a table, just before midnight on St. John's-day, with a clean white cloth, knives and forks, and bread and cheese, to see if they should marry the men to whom they were engaged. They sat down to it, keeping strict silence--
"For, if a word had been spoken, The spell would have been broken."
As the clock struck twelve, the door (which had purposely been left unbarred) opened, and their two lovers walked in, having, as they said, met outside, both compelled by irresistible curiosity to go and see if there were anything the matter with their sweethearts.
It never entered the old lady's head that the men probably had an inkling of what was going on, and to have hinted that such was the case would, I am quite sure, have given dire offence.
The following charm is from the W. Antiquary:--Pluck a rose at midnight on St. John's-day, wear it to church, and your intended will take it out of your button-hole.--(Old Farmer, Mid-Cornwall, through T. Q. Couch.)
"It was believed that if a young maiden gathered a rose on Midsummer-day, and folding it in white paper, forbore to look at it or mention what she had done until the following Christmas-day, she would then find the flower fresh and bright; and further if she placed it in her bosom and wore it at church, the person most worthy of her hand would be sure to draw near her in the porch, and beseech her to give him the rose."--Neota--Launcells. Charlotte Hawkey.
In connection with Midsummer bonfires, I mentioned those on St. Peter's-eve; although they are no longer lighted at Penzance, the custom (never confined to West Cornwall) is in other places still observed. Many of the churches in the small fishing villages on the coast are dedicated to this saint, the patron of fishermen, and on his tide the towers of these churches were formerly occasionally illuminated.
On St. Peter's-eve, at Newlyn West, in 1883, many of the men were away fishing on the east coast of England, and the celebration of the festival was put off until their return, when it took place with more than usual rejoicings. The afternoon was given up to aquatic sports, and in the evening, in addition to the usual bonfires and tar-barrels, squibs, hand and sky-rockets were let off. The young people finished the day with an open-air dance, which ended before twelve. In this village effigies of objectionable characters, after they have been carried through the streets, are sometimes burnt in the St. Peter's bonfire. I have often in Cornwall heard red-haired people described "as looking as if they were born on bonfire night." At Wendron, and many other small inland mining villages, the boys at St. Peter's-tide fire off miniature rock batteries called "plugs."