186 FLOEA DOMESTICA. 



' ' Youth's folk now flocken everywhere, 

 To gather May-buskets and smelling breere ; 

 And home they hasten the posts to dight, 

 And all the kirk-pillars ere day-light, 

 With hawthorne buds, and sweet eglantine, 

 And girlonds of roses, and sops-in-wine." 



SPENSER'S SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR. 



At this season our fields and hedges begin to show 

 symptoms of their summer richness; buds are opening 

 around you at every step ; and 



'" the waving trees 



Throw their soft shadows on the sunny fields, 

 Where in the music-breathing hedge the thorn, 

 And pearly white May-blossom full of sweets, 

 Hang out the virgin flag of spring, entwined 

 With dripping honeysuckles, whose sweet breath 

 Sinks to the heart recalling with a sigh 

 Dim recollected feelings of the days 

 Of youth and early love." 



ATHERSTONE'S LAST DAYS OF HERCULANEUM. 



There are many species of Hawthorn. India has its 

 Hawthorn : America, China, Siberia, have each their 

 Hawthorn : several are Europeans : but our own British 

 shrub yields to none of them. It is very common in every 

 part of England ; is to be seen in every hedge : 



" And every shepherd tells his tale 

 Under the hawthorn in the dale." 



MILTON, L'ALLEGRO. 



We must not, however, let our fancies run so riot, as to 

 suppose that the poet here intends that we should con- 

 ceive a beautiful and youthful nymph sitting by the shep- 

 herd's side, to whom he is pouring forth his fond tale of 

 love; for, in very truth, the real image present in the 

 poet's mind was simply that of a shepherd telling his tale, 

 or, in unpoetic language, counting his sheep, as he lies 

 extended in the shade of this tree ; and to those who take 



