CHAP. XLII. iZOSA^CE^. CRATiE GUS. 8S9 



is said, that Joseph of Arimathea, after the burial of Christ, came to Eng- 

 land, attended by twelve companions, to found the first Christian church in 

 this island ; and, guided by divine impulse, he proceeded to Glastonbury for 

 that purpose. It was Christmas-day when he arrived at the spot where he 

 had been commanded to build a church in honour of the Virgin Mary ; and, 

 finding that the natives did not appear inclined to believe in his mission, he 

 prayed to God to perform a miracle to convince them. His prayer was im- 

 mediately answered; and, on striking his staff into the ground, it immediately 

 shot forth into leaves and blossoms. The legend adds that this thorn is still 

 in existence, and still blossoms annually on Christmas-day. The French 

 have a legend, that, on the day after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, on 

 August 25th, an old thorn in the churchyard of St. Innocent, in Paris, came 

 into blossom a second time. 



The poets who have written on the hawthorn are almost as numerous as 

 those who have written on the rose. Chaucer, in his Court of Love, makes 

 all his court, on May-day, go forth, " both most and lest, to fetche the flouris 

 fresh, and branche and bloome ;" and 



" Marke the faire blooming of the hawthorne tree. 

 Who finely cloathed in a robe of white. 

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



and Shakspeare, in Henri/ VI., asks : — 



" Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 

 To shepherds looking on their silly sheep. 

 Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy 

 To kings who fear their subjects' treachery ? " 



But, perhaps, no poet has ever conjured up a more beautiful picture of the 

 hawthorn, than Goldsmith in his Deserted Village : — 



" The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade. 

 For talking age and whispering lovers made." 



The custom of going a Maying, that is, going out early in the morning of the 

 1st of May to gather bunches of hawthorn flowers, is of very great antiquity. 

 The Greeks and Romans gathered the May in honour of Flora, to whom the 

 plant was dedicated, and whose festival began on May-day ; and the Greeks, 

 even of the present time, preserve the memorial of this custom by hanging a 

 garland of hawthorn flowers against their doors on the 1st of May. In 

 Britain, Stowe tells us that Henry VIII., with his queen Katherine, and the 

 lords and ladies of their court, rode out a Maying, from Greenwich to Shooter's 

 Hill ; and in a curious MS., entitled The State of Eton School, a.d. 1560, it is 

 stated that, " on the day of St. Philip and St. James (May 1st), if it be fair 

 weather, and the master grants leave, those boys who choose it may rise at 

 4 o'clock, to gather May branches, if they can do it without wetting their feet." 

 In decking the May-pole with flowers, a branch of hawthorn was formerly always 

 put on the top; but since the alteration of the style, in 1752, May-day occurring 

 eleven days earlier, the hawthorn is seldom in blossom on that day, except in 

 the southern parts of England. The hawthorn is the badge of the clan OgUvy. 



Soil and Situation. The hawthorn will do no good unless planted in a soil 

 naturally dry and fertile, or that has been rendered so by art. The plant is 

 never found naturally on a wet soil ; and, if planted on such a soil, it soon 

 becomes stunted, and covered with lichens and moss. The situation should 

 be airy : but it will grow either in exposed places, or in such as are sheltered, 

 and even shaded, by other trees. In cases of this kind, however, it neither 

 forms a handsome tree, nor a close thick hedge. 



Pro-pagation and Culture. The species is almost always propagated by 

 seeds, but sometimes by cuttings of the roots ; which, when about half an 

 inch in thickness, and I ft. or 18 in. in length, and planted with the root end 

 undermost, speedily make large plants. Where old thorn plants are taken 

 up, the roots may always be useil for forming new hedges ; but it must be 

 acknowledged that, as they do not all send up shoots equally, some remaining 



