OLD ENGLISH FLOWER-NAMES 135 



which the principal sportsman is towing within reach 

 of the powerful gaff. In those days, the ceremonial 

 costume which modern practice only insists on for 

 the hunting field, was looked on as indispensable to 

 all field sports ; peradventure some of us may live 

 to hear young men laughing at the unwritten law 

 which, in the nineteenth century, enforced the 

 wearing of white breeches and tall hats by all who 

 would worthily pursue the fox. 



XLV 



Not many years ago, May was the most flowerless 



of all the months of spring or summer 



Old English 



in English country-house gardens, until Flower 

 , . , . Names 



a happy caprice once more brought into 



favour the plants with which our forefathers were 

 content to deck their parterres. The borders which, 

 under the ' bedding-out ' system, lay bare all winter 

 and spring, waiting till the temperature permitted 

 the tender plants to be put in the ground, are now 

 allowed to bear the full procession of the sweetest 

 flowers of the season, and great is the gain in variety 

 and interest. There is good cause for throwing up 

 of hats, or any other decorous act of jubilation, on 



