264 KOSACE^ 



who was an implacable enemy to festivities of this kind, descrilies them in 

 such terms as leaves us nothing to regret that in our days they have ceased, 

 for he says the people " daunced about the Maypoles, as the Heathen people 

 did at the dedication of their idolles, whereof it was a perfect pattern, or 

 rather the thing itself e." 



But as the poets of former days praised the usages connected with the 

 Hawthorn, so they have not been slow to praise the beauties of the tree 

 itself. It is, when fully grown, a picturesque tree, with its gnarled trunk 

 and wide extent of green boughs covered with the fragrant flowers of May, 

 and casting a broad and deep shadow. From Chaucer downwards we find 

 continual allusions to it : — 



"Amongst the many buds proclaiming May, 

 Decking the fields in holiday array, 

 Striving who shall surpass in bi'averie, 

 Marke the faire flowering of the Hawthorne-tree, 

 Who finely cloth'd in a robe of white 

 Fills full the wanton eye with May's delight." 



Burns speaks of — 



"The Hawthorn budding in the glen." 



Clare has a beautiful little poem, "The Wild-wood Bower," on this tree, 

 which was treasured in " Memory's Calendar;" and Robert NichoUs says : — 



"The Hawthorn hangs its clusters round me now, 



Through which the sky peeps sweetly sweetly in ; 

 Through the green glades doth come the cattle's low 



From the rich pastures of the meadow green ; 

 Look up ! aloft the twittering birds are seen, 



Upon the branches their wild matins singing. 

 Look down ! the grass is soft, and thick, I ween, 



And flowers around each old tree root are springing, 

 Wood fancies wild and sweet to the lone wanderer bringing." 



The Hawthorn when young grows rapidly, but as it becomes older increases 

 but slowly. Its name of Quickset it derives from its being the tree usually 

 selected for making quick, that is, living, hedges. These hedges seem to 

 have come into use in the time of Charles II. ; and Evelyn says that he has 

 raised hedges four feet high in four years from seedlings taken from the 

 woods. After a time the growth of the plant is slow, and those old trees 

 which we find scattered about in woodland, field, or hedge, were many of 

 them planted centuries ago. Thorny as the young boughs are, some of these 

 old trees are almost without spines. Sometimes a tree separates into a 

 number of distinct stems, looking like a clump of distinct trees, but on 

 examining them we find them connected at the base into one. The wood of 

 this species, as well as that of the scarlet thorn, the cockspur thorn, fire 

 thorn, and indeed of all kinds of Thorn, is remarkably tough, so much so 

 that the genus Cratcegus seems to have been so called from the strength of 

 the wood. The hard, firm timber of large trees is very valuable, but the 

 slow growth of the Hawthorn into any great size renders the tree little 

 available for any purpose save for walking-sticks, or such small articles as its 

 boughs may furnish ; it is of a yellowish-white colour, and is ornamental 



