Remarkable Scene in a Cornish Parish.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 14, 1 August 1895, Page 3

Remarkable Scene in a Cornish Parish.

7-.y7Ehe'ohurch and 'churchyard of Bl island, a'; -' remote village several, miles from .Bodmin,Cornwall, we'-e the scene of a remarkable ..incident on' Sunday etching, May 13. Four -y lad£>_L*d some.days previous'y committed an assault on a young servant git 1. and the facts V y. having been repor.ted to-the rector (the Bey. ':'-■ E. V.. Collins) it was publicly announced that y t_db_-the ladswouH'-op^nly confess their .*.. crime in the parish church on Sunday evening, that the rector would grant absolution, :"'■■ and that,- by way of penance, the lads were -.-' to distribute I__ worth of bread at the church ' gates after the servicer "At the 'time named .obiiroh and churchyard were crowded ' with people, and in the" churoh tbe two lads were- conspicuously seated in front of the pulpit. "Tbey were severely admonished by „ .the recjtor ..who told them that their presence X'"iiiK '"iii. the ['parish' was a danger to respectable •"- people, but that : for the sake of, their parents :< vtWjitobor .g?rl whom they had .assaulted had > eflfressed her" willingness to forgive tham. y<IJSB two youths were then told to kneel, and, loud enough to be heard all over y "church, they made public confession of their offence.' andexp'ressed'.tbeir sorrow: Then - .thereotor. prayed -for "them and asked the congregation to pray for tbem also. After .the service the two lads were marched off . . to the parish room near tho church gates, and, in the presence, of a great. concourse y of : people, the rector led them forth, ".-.'-'each lad carrying a loaf under his arm. They .- V" were greeted with roars of laughter, and then followed a disgraceful scene. Men, women, and children were huddled together in one '.'""* mass in their struggles to get the bread, and .as 'soon 'as the bread had been disposed of one of the lads produced a large tin of . treacle which he had purchased upon the previous evening,' whereupon the loaves were -'" broken up,, dipped in the treacle, and re- . distributed amongst the crowd. As a climax "-*"" a member., of -.the militia band, who bad,, .'arrived': from "Bodmin in full uniform,- --"• '/amused the audience with a tune on his .: trombone, and thes ended what will, it is' ■ '-' said, be henceforth known in the parish aa j- ''.Bread-and-treacle Sunday."