The Real Cornish Online Magazine - Cornish Story

EventsGwav Winter 2010Gwav Winter 2010EventsThe Tale Of PicrousPicrous was a traditional feast for tinners in eastCornwall and the specific connection with Luxulyanis based on Robert Hunt’s reference in 1865 to thelegend of Jan Sturtridge who was walking to thevillage to join in the Picrous Eve celebrations whenhe was led astray by the little people (see nextpage)!The contemporary history of the celebrations isclosely associated with Will Coleman who movedfrom Fowey to the nearby parish of Lanlivery aboutfifteen years ago. Inspired by Eric Higgs, a localfarmer who used to sing some of the traditionalCornish carols like ‘Lo, the Eastern Sages Rise’ and‘Wassail’, Will and his neighbours set up an informalsinging group (sometimes called the ‘LanliverySingers’ or even just ‘Will’s Lot’!) that performed atChristmas time in local pubs at Lanlivery, Luxulyan,Lerryn and Golant.Will recalls that about ten years ago he was talkingto Ken Saundry, popular landlord of the Kings Armsat Luxulyan, about Jan Sturtridge and Picrous.Kenny’s response was that Picrous should be revivedwith free pasties at the pub! This soon resulted ina popular community-based celebration combiningstorytelling, singing and instrumental performanceswith a distinctive Cornish flavour.Picrous at the Kings Arms, more popularly known inthe area as ‘Bridges’, can draw on a long traditionof communal singing. Stanley Tregidga recallsthat ‘I always used to look forward to Christmasand singing carols down at Bridges. It was alwaysrenowned as a “Singing Pub” with visiting quartetsfrom other areas’. Yet as Will points out, ‘you canexpect the unexpected’ at Picrous!’ One year agroup of Indian musicians were performing at Edenand they decided to join in the Picrous celebrationsat the Kings Arms thereby creating a powerful fusionof different musical styles. This ability to combinetradition with innovation will hopefully ensure thesurvival of Picrous at Luxulyan for years to come.Garry TregidgaThe Piskies inthe Cellar‘On the Thursday immediately preceding Christmastide(year not recorded) were assembled at "TheRising Sun" the captain and men of a Stream Workin the Couse below. This Couse was a flat alluvialmoor, broken by gigantic mole-hills, the work ofmany a generation of tinners. One was half inclined,on looking at the turmoiled ground, to believe withthem that the tin grew in successive crops, for,after years of turning and searching, there was stillenough left to give the landlord his dole, and tofurnish wages to some dozen Streamers. This nightwas a festival observed in honour of one Picrous,and intended to celebrate the discovery of tin onthis day by a man of that name. The feast is stillkept, though the observance has dwindled to asupper and its attendant merrymaking.Our story has especially to do with the adventuresof one of the party, John Sturtridge, who, wellprimed with ale, started on his homeward wayfor Luxulyan Church-town. John had got as faras Tregarden Down without any mishap worthrecording, when, alas I he happed upon a party ofthe little people, who were at their sports in theshelter of a huge granite boulder. Assailed by shoutsof derisive laughter, he hastened on frightenedand bewildered, but the Down, well known fromearly experience, became like ground untrodden,and after long trial no gate or stile was to be found.He was getting vexed, as well as puzzled, when achorus of tiny voices shouted: "Ho I and away forPar Beach!" John repeated the shout, and was in aninstant caught up, and in a twinkling found himselfon the sands of Par. A brief dance, and the cry wasgiven: "Ho! and away for Squire Tremain's cellar!" Arepetition of the Piskie cry found John with his elfishcompanions in the cellars at Heligan, where wasbeer and wine galore.It need not be said that he availed himself of hisopportunities. The mixture of all the good liquorsso affected him that, alas! he forgot in time to catchup the next cry of "Ho! and away for Par Beach!" Inthe morning John was found by the butler, gropingand tumbling among butts and barrels, very muchmuddled with the squire's good drink. His strangestory, very incoherently told, was not creditedby the squire, who committed him to jail for theburglary, and in due time he was convicted andsentenced to death.The morning of his execution arrived; a large crowdhad assembled, and John was standing under thegallows tree, when a commotion was observed inthe crowd, and a little lady of commanding mienmade her way through the opening throng tothe scaffold. In a shrill, sweet voice, which Johnrecognised, she cried: "Ho! and away for France!"which being replied to, he was rapt from the officersof justice, leaving them and the multitude mutewith wonder and disappointment’.From Robert Hunt, Romances of the West ofEngland, James Camden Hotten, London, 1965.58 Cornish Story MagazineCornish Story Magazine 59