HA WTHORN. 



a favourite seat for lovers, of which Burns is not unmindful : 



"If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, 



One cordial in this melancholy vale, 

 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair, 



In others arms breathe out the tender tale. 

 Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale ;" 



full of hope of many happy days to come, as they wend their 

 way through this chequered life, which they have resolved to 

 do together. 



Shakespeare asks : 



" Gives not the Hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 

 To shepherds looking on their silly sheep 

 Than doth a rich embroidered canopy 

 To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery?" 



Milton regards it as the favourite shade of the same rustic 

 character : 



" And every shepherd tells his tale 

 Under the Hawthorn in the dale." 



The poets are ever mindful of it. Kirke White speaks of 



"The mossy seat beneath the Hawthorn's shade,'' 



and inviting " Contemplation " personified to accompany him, 

 says, we 



" — on the upland stile embowered 

 With fragrant Hawthorn, snowy flowered. 

 Will sauntering sit." 



104 



