258 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



used to be tied to the cart-tail and whipped throughout 

 the village ; in fact, the laws against vagrancy were 

 exceedingly cruel. Men and women were whipped 

 at Worcester till the close of the last century, as may 

 be seen by the corporation records ; the plan was 

 to strip them to the waist, and whip them until blood 

 came. Young girls used to be whipped in this manner 

 for merely wandering about without any fixed place 

 of habitation, or for begging. 



All these things were witnessed by travellers in 

 those days ; and then there were the great village 

 fairs, and the festivities on May Day, when Jack-in- 

 the-Green was " en evidence," and the village beauty 

 was enthroned and crowned as Queen of May. This 

 last old custom is a very delightful one, and there 

 is no doubt that by perpetuating it we greatly con- 

 tribute to the amusement of people whose lives are 

 not remarkable for any great amount of enjoyment. 

 May Day is perhaps one of the most noteworthy of 

 these past customs, the celebration of which must have 

 been witnessed by many travellers on the old coaches 

 as they passed through village after village on the 

 first of May. Chambers says that in England we 

 have to go back several generations to find the 

 observance of May Day in its fullest development ; 

 even the king and queen w^ere accustomed to join 

 in the maying festivities. In Chaucer's " Court of 

 Love " we read that, early on May Day, " Forth goeth 

 all the court, both most and least to fetch the flowers 

 fresh." In fact, in the reign of Henry VIII., of 

 murderous memory, the heads of the Corporation of 

 London went out into the high grounds of Kent 

 to gather in the may; the king and his queen, Catherine 

 of Arragon, coming from their palace at Greenwich,, 

 and meeting them at Shooter's Hill. 



