DAWN AND THE DONS 120
upon one another’s heads was considered great fun. The cavalier who could thus oftenest cause a lady to “float in lavender and cologne” was accorded temporary dis-
tinction. And many another social custom, long since vanished and forgotten, characterized the love-making and the merry-making, and added a peculiar, if primitive, charm to the pleasures of that period. Their picnics were gala affairs. Nowhere can there be found
more
delightful retreats,
or more
ideal cli-
matic conditions than on the Monterey peninsula. Here. came the merry picnickers, usually on horseback, to revel in the delights of the sylvan shade. As Colton saw the picture: “I encountered today a company of Californians on horseback bound to a picnic, each with his lady love on the saddle before him. He, as in duty bound, rides behind, throws his feet forward into the
stirrups, his left hand holds the reins, his right arm en-
