BLACKTHORN. 149 



She showed him a cherry as red as blood, 

 And with that she 'ticed him in!" 



Or, as Percy has given the third stanza, in his ' Reliques/ 



" Sche powd an apple reid and white, 



To intice the yong thing in ; 

 Sche powd an apple white and reid, 

 And that the sweit hairne did win." 



BLACKTHOBN. 



The blackthorn, or sloe, is inseparably associated with 

 the poet Bloomfield. His touching description of the 

 "poor bird-boy, and his roasted sloes/' will ever be 

 remembered by the lovers of poetry and nature, when 

 looking upon this bushy, rigid, and thorny tree, with its 

 dark-coloured bark and white flowers, blossoming not 

 unfrequently in frosty March. 



Thus sang the author of the ' Farmer's Boy ' : 



" From hungry woodland foes, go, Giles, and guard 

 The rising wheat : ensure its great reward ; 



