On the coast of the far west of Cornwall great bonfires were lit on the evening of 24 June, and next day the country people gathered in crowds to go out on the water. Druidicus, writing in 1795, thought the boat trips showed that summer was now felt to be settled enough to trust the sea.
Midsummer water parties in West Cornwall
25 June · West Cornwall
No longer kept
an immemorial and peculiar custom prevails on the sea-coast of the Western extremity of Cornwall, of kindling large bonfires on the evening of June 24 ; and on the next day, the country people, assembling in great crowds, amuse themselves with excursions on the water.
From The Gentleman's Magazine Library, Popular Superstitions, p. 62. Read the original
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