92 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 248, 



o' the May " is not hereditary, but elective : her 

 majesty being annually chosen by her school- 

 fellows in the morning, and (such is the fickleness 

 of human nature) dethroned in the evening. My 

 sketches inform me, that her chief symbol of 

 sovereignty is a parasol, which she bears with 

 grace and dignity. Moreover, she weareth white 

 gloves, and carrieth a bag that displayeth a pocket- 

 handkerchief. She has a white veil too ; and 

 around her bonnet is her crown, a coronal of 

 flowers. In front of her dress is a bouquet ; and 

 in two of my sketches she wears round her neck 

 an Odd Fellows' ribbon and badge — the substi- 

 tute for the ribbon of the Garter. You may be 

 quite sure that her majesty is dressed in her very 

 best, and has put on that white frock for the first 

 time since last summer. Let us Lope that she 

 will have as merry a day as Tennyson's May 

 Queen. 



Preceding the maids-of-honour with the gar- 

 land, and followed by her attendants, both male 

 and female, her majesty makes the tour of her 

 native place, and, at the various houses of her 

 subjects, exhibits the charms of Flora and the 

 garland. If, as is commonly the case, the regal 

 procession is composed of school-children, they 

 sing such songs as may have been taught them. 

 It is then usual for loyal subjects to make a pecu- 

 niary present to the May Queen, which is depo- 

 sited in her majesty's handkerchief-bag, and will 

 be expended on the coronation banquet: a feast 

 which will take place in the school-room, or some 

 large-roomed cottage, as early as three o'clock in 

 the afternoon ; when her majesty will be graciously 

 pleased to sit down in the midst of her subjects, 

 and will probably quaff at least ten of those cups 

 that cheer but not inebriate, and will consume 

 plum-cake and bread-and-butter in proportion. 

 If the votive offerings have been large, the luxury 

 of peppermint-drops, brandy-balls, toffy, and 

 other kinds of " suck," may be added to these 

 delicacies. When her majesty and suite have con- 

 sumed all the tea, and cake, and goodies, they 

 proceed to disport themselves before the eyes of 

 their loving subjects. A cord has been drawn 

 from chimney to chimney, or from tree to tree, 

 across the village street. The garland is sus- 

 pended from the centre of it, with Flora in the 

 midst ; balls have been purchased with a part 

 of the morning's gifts ; and (in the expressive 

 language of pantomime bills) " now the fun be- 

 gins." -The balls are thrown backwards and for- 

 wards over the rope and garland ; and, if Flora's 

 nose is damaged by a bad shot, why it is no more 

 than Flora might expect from placing herself in 

 such a conspicuous and dangerous situation. 

 Games are instituted : " I spy," " Tick," " Here 

 we go round the mulberry-bush," " Thread-the- 

 needle," " What have I apprenticed my son to?" 

 "Blind-man's buff;" in all of which her majesty, 



having laid aside her crown and cares of state^ 

 frolics, "the maddest, merriest," of all. Per- 

 chance the "tuneless pipe," or "harsh-scraped 

 violin," may wind up the sports of May-day with 

 a dance, and send her majesty to bed, wearied out 

 indeed, but happier than many a queen who has 

 worn a royal crown. 



So much for May-day in Huntingdonshire. In 

 some parts of Worcestershire, a garland, similar 

 to the May-day one, is taken about on May 29. 

 As May-poles are not very plentiful, it may per- 

 haps be worth mentioning, that the dance round 

 the May-pole is kept up at the village of Cient 

 (near Hagley), Worcestershire ; and that, last 

 May-day, they — 



" Danced about the May -pole, and in the hazel -copse, 

 Till Charles's wain came out above the tall white 

 chimney-tops." 



COTHBEET BeDK, B.A. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



[The following process is translated from La Lumiere, 

 The original communication was accompanied by pictures 

 produced bj' this process, and of the beauty of which the 

 editor of La Lumiere speaks in the highest terms.] 



Turpentino-wax Paper Process, by M. Ijespiaidt. — I 

 have tlie honour of communicating to you the details of a 

 dry paper process which joins, to the advantage of long 

 preservation, that of easy manipulation and admirable 

 tones, and at the same time preserves the proofs of a 

 proper strength. 1 send with my letter two proofs, ob- 

 tained by the aid of this new process : one of them shows 

 that green is not so rebellious a colour as is generally 

 believed to the action of the actinic rays ; and that by the 

 help of bromide properly proportioned, you can secure 

 not only the forms, but the very depths of the foliage. 



I generally use well-selected Saxe or Canson paper. If 

 the paper is full of little holes, in consequence of too 

 much glazing, 1 improve it by means of ordinary collo- 

 dion dissolved, in a small quantity, in alcohol mixed with 

 a little ether ; but if the paper is good, this precaution 

 becomes useless. 



I put 200 grammes of white wax in a litre bottle, 

 which I immediatelv fill completely with rectified spirits 

 of turpentine. I have a larger vessel filled with water, 

 heated to thirty or forty degrees centigrade, — a tempera- 

 ture which can be easily known without a thermometer, 

 and simply by the help of the hand. I plunge the bottle 

 almost entirely in the water, and leave it there about a 

 quarter of an hour, shaking it from time to time. 



I then take it out, and the spirit has dissolved the 

 proper quantity of wax. It ought to be of the consistency 

 of olive oil, and not to set in cooling ; if this happens, 

 there has been too much wax, and it will be necessary to 

 add a certain quantity more spirit, and to warm it again 

 to render the mixture liquid. 



The papers are to be immersed in this preparation, 

 previously filtered. They imbibe it immediately, and 

 become transparent like a glass finely polished ; but by 

 the desiccation, they soon take a heavy white appearance, 

 and scarcely appear waxell. 



You can "immerse twenty or thirty sheets together m 

 the liquid ; and after having turned the whole mass, take 

 them out one by one and suspend them by a corner. The 

 time of immersion is of little consequence, and may vary 



