o 



60 pPant Tsorc, Iseg&r^f, a'h^ Tsijricy. 



Him, and made Him a crown of the branches of the Albespyne, 

 that is, White Thorn, which grew in the same garden, and set it on 



His head And therefore hath the White Thorn many 



virtues. For he that beareth a branch thereof, no thunder or 

 manner of tempest may hurt him : and in the house that it is in 



may no evil spirit enter." A Roman Cathohc legend relates that 



when the Holy Crown blossomed afresh, whilst the vidlorious' 

 Charlemagne knelt before it, the scent of Hawthorn filled the air. 

 The Crown of Thorns was given up to St. Louis of P'rance by the 

 Venetians, and placed by him in the Sainte Chapelle, which he built 

 in Paris. The Feast of the Susception of the Holy Crown is 

 observed at the church of Notre Dame, in Paris, in honour of this 

 cherished relic. The Crown of Thorns is enclosed within a glass 

 circle, which a priest holds in his hands ; he passes before the kneel- 

 ing devotees, who are ranged outside the altar rail, and offers the 

 crown to them to be kissed. The Norman peasant constantly wears 

 a sprig of Hawthorn in his cap, from the belief that Christ's crown 

 was woven of it.— — The French have a curious tradition that when 

 Christ was one day resting in a wood, after having escaped from a 

 pursuit by the Jews, the magpies came and covered Him all over 

 with Thorns, which the kindly swallows {ponies de Dieu) perceived, 

 and hastened to remove. A swallow is also said to have taken 



away the Crown of Thorns at the Crucifixion. The Hawthorn 



is the distinguishing badge of the royal house of Tudor. When 

 Richard HI. was slain at Bosworth, his body was plundered of its 

 armour and ornaments. The crown was hidden by a soldier in a 

 Hawthorn-bush, but was soon found and carried back to Lord 

 Stanley, who, placing it on the head of his son-in-law, saluted him 

 as King Henry VH. To commemorate this picfturesque incident, 

 the house of Tudor assumed the device of a crown in a bush of 

 fruited Hawthorn. The proverb of " Cleave to the crown, though 



it hang on a bush," alludes to the same circumstance. The 



Hawthorn has for centuries borne in England the favourite name 

 of " May," from its flowering in that month: 



*' Between the leaves the silver Whitethorn shows 

 Its dewy blossoms pure as mountain snows." 



In olden times, very early on May-day morning, lads and lasses 

 repaired to the woods and hedgerows, and returned, soon after 

 sunrise, laden with posies of flowers, and boughs of blooming 

 Hawthorn, with which to decorate the churches and houses: 

 even in London boughs of May were freely suspended over the 

 citizens' doorways. Chaucer tells us how : — 



" Furth goth all the Courte, both most and lest, 

 To fetche the flouris frcshe, and braunche, and blome, 

 And namely Hawthorne brought both page and gromq, 

 With freshe garlandis partly blew and white, 

 And than rcjoisin in their grete delighte." 



