ROSE TRIBE 267 



be an occasion of superstition, had some of the prickles flew into his eye, 

 and made liim monocular." In the time of Charles I. the remaining trunk 

 of the tree "was cut down, but a vintner of the place, "out of pure devotion," 

 as the narrator tells, secured a slip, which being set in a garden, flowered 

 on the 25th of December. There are still two old trees in the precincts of the 

 abbey, M'hich doubtless sprang from the venerable tree, and which even yet 

 blossom in winter, though sometimes not until the latter end of January or 

 Febi'uary. 



It is impossible to account for the winter flowering of the Hawthorn, 

 though it was undoubtedly owing to a natural cause. Ashmole, in 1672, 

 mentions having seen the branch of a Hawthorn, "having greene leaves, 

 faire buds, and full flowers, all thick and very beautifull, and (which is more 

 notable) many of the hawes and berries upon it red and plump ; some of 

 which," he says, " is yet preserved in the plante booke of my collection." 

 This branch he had from Edgeworth, near Middlesex. CuljDepper also 

 mentions a HaAvthorn which grew at Romney Marsh, and another near 

 Nantwich, in Cheshire, where it flowered both at May and Christmas ; 

 though he says that if the weather was frosty it did not flower for the second 

 time until January, or till the hard weather was over. 



In 1752, when our fathers introduced what is commonly called the "New 

 Style," our G-lastonbury Thorn figured as a very important tree. This 

 change, which has made many of the old proverbs respecting the seasons 

 seem less wise than they really are, gave great offence to the unedticated 

 class of the community. It not only seemed to them an attempt to alter 

 the course of nature, but it caused even the very Psalms in the Prayer-Books 

 to occur on what they deemed the wrong days ; and all public evils, as 

 unfruitful seasons, wars, and epidemics, were attributed to the fancied 

 impiety of the rulers of the land. The Rev. W. T. Bree relates the com- 

 plaints of an old labourer in an obscure village in Yorkshire, Avho assured 

 him that the inhabitants of that parish were so disgusted with the change, 

 that they were at the pains of procuring a minister at their own private 

 expense to perform Divine service upon Old Christmas Day, making it also a 

 point to work as usual on that newly appointed. Moreover, these simple 

 villagers actually sent a deputation down to Grlastonbury for the purpose 

 of consulting the holy Thorn on the occasion, a sprig of which, gathered on 

 Old Christmas Day in leaf, or in flower, the narrator forgets which, was' 

 brought back in triumph to the village. 



Many other persons at the same time consulted the old Thorn, which 

 would not swerve from its loyalty to the old anniversary, but was covered 

 on Old Christmas Day with its blooms. A large concourse of people 

 assembled at Glastonbury to see if it would flower on the day appointed by 

 Parliament, but not a blossom appeared, and the general dissatisfaction was 

 greatly increased by the circumstance. 



The well-known haws which redden on the Hawthorn boughs in autumn 

 and winter among the falling leaves, are a useful store to the birds till the 

 frost deprives them of their flavour. Dr. Withering mentions that a variety 

 of the tree with white leaves was found near Bampton, in Oxfordshire. It 

 is generally supposed that our name of Hawthorn was derived from that 



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