90 THE HAWTHORN. 



Hawthorn was selected to be the distinguishing badge of 

 the House of Tudor. After the battle of Bosworth, in 

 which Richard III. was slain on Redmore Heath, and his 

 body ignominiously stripped, " the crown was hidden by a 

 soldier in a Hawthorn bush, but was soon found, and carried 

 back to Lord Stanley, who placed it on the head of his son- 

 in-law, saluting him by the title of Henry VII., while the 

 victorious army sang Te J)eum on the blood-stained heath. 

 It was in memory of the fact that the red-berried Hawthorn 

 once sheltered the crown of England, that 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 sight of the Hawthorn always recalls images of 

 rural life ; but we must go back to a somewhat remote 

 period to find it invested with its full honours. During 

 the reign of Henry VIII., May sports were the favourite 

 diversion of all classes, not only in the country, but even 

 in London. On the eve of May-day, the citizens used to 

 go in companies to the neighbouring woods and groves, 

 some to Highgate or Hampstead, some to Greenwich, some 

 to Shooter's Hill ; there the night was spent in cutting- 

 down green branches, in preparing the May-pole, and in a 

 variety of sports and pastimes. On their return early in 

 the morning, the revellers adorned the May-pole with 

 flowers and foliage from one end to the other, the pole 

 itself being previously painted with the most brilliantly 

 variegated colours. The pole was dragged to its destina- 

 tion by a large number of oxen, each ox having a nosegay 

 of flowers tied to the tips of his horns : men, women, and 

 children, all dressed in their gayest habiliments and laden 

 with green boughs, completed the procession. As they 

 passed through the streets of London, they found 



" Each street a park, 

 Made green, and trimm'd with trees ; " 

 the church porches decorated 



' ' With Hawthorn buds and sweet eglantine, 

 And garlands of roses ; " 



