NOTES. 



*' It was of old a festive day, 

 That ushered in the birth of May ; 

 Right early on the jocund mom 

 When that delightful month was bom. 

 Regardless of the timely sleep. 

 The noble fi-om the castled steep, 

 The burgher fi-om the busy change, 

 From village, hamlet, lonely grange, 

 The peasantry, a mingled throng. 

 Lasses and lads, and old and young, 

 Poured forth promiscuously, to pay 

 Observance to the merry May : 

 With shout and song, and winded horn, 

 Alert to wake the slumbering morn ; 

 To rove the good greenwood, and bring 

 Away the spoO of early Spring, 

 With nosegays decked, with garlands crowned. 

 And hang each smiling homestead round 

 Window and door and porch with bowers 

 Of verdant boughs and blooming flowers." — Bp. 3Iant. 



Thus we read in Chaucer's Court of Love, that early on 

 May-day, ' Fourth goth al the court, both most and lest, to 

 fetche the floui-is fresh, and braunch, and blome.' 



Page 31, note e. 



" The Pimpernel grows everywhere ; on the sandy heath 

 among the furze and broom, on the bank by the road, and 

 especially among the ripening corn, it may be seen, on any 

 sunny day, dm-ing July and August. It is commonly called 

 the ' Shepherd's Warning' or ' Poor man's Weather-glass,' 

 from the influence that a moist atmosphere has upon the 

 blossom, which is so sensitive, that long before we can be 



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