THE HAWTHORN 53 



It is m April, however, " when Hawthorn buds 

 appear " as the first tufted harbingers of summer, 

 throwing off their russet scales, and unfolding in the 

 most perfect purity of green, that the tree exhibits its 

 real charm. Before the change of style its flowers 

 may generally have been gathered on May-day in 

 most parts of England, and have decorated many a 

 maypole ; but now this seldom happens except in 

 Cornwall and Devon, it not being generally out until 

 at least the middle of the month, while in Scotland 

 it may be a month later. In Brande's "Popular 

 Antiquities" we are told that "it was an old custom 

 in Suffolk, in most of the farmhouses, that any 

 servant who could bring in a branch of Hawthorn 

 in full blossom on the first of May was entitled 

 to a dish of cream for breakfast. This custom is 

 now disused, not so much from the reluctance of the 

 masters to give the reward, as from the inability 

 of the servants to find the Whitethorn in flower." 



Again, in a manuscript account of " The State of 

 Eton School, a.d. 1560," in the British Museum, it is 

 stated that, on the day of St. Philip and St. James 

 i.e. the first of May " if it be fair weather, and the 

 master grants leave, those boys who choose it may 

 rise at four o'clock, to gather May branches, if they 

 can do it without wetting their feet ; and that on that 

 day they adorn the windows of the bed-chamber 

 with green leaves, and the houses are perfumed with 

 fragrant herbs." 



The long leafy sprays, whose foliage is, however, 

 almost hidden by the lavish masses of blossom that 

 have earned for the plant the name of Whitethorn, as 



