AND CELEBRATED GARDENS 



Then comes the reference to gardens : 



" Mary, Mary, quite contrary, 

 How does your garden grow ? " 



And many other examples. I have made no study of folk- 

 lore, but I cannot help thinking that though some of these rhymes 

 and songs may be comparatively modern, others bear the mark 

 of antiquity, and that the origin of the simplest of these may be 

 traced back to customs and observances that have fallen into 

 disuse ; to beliefs, traditions, and superstitions, themselves for- 

 gotten ; or to some incident, maybe, in the life of mediaeval 

 England, which, did we but know it, would invest the childish 

 rhymes and the bucolic songs with even greater charm, interest, 

 and significance, than on the surface they may seem to possess. 

 If the Rush-bearing still practised in some parts of the country, if 

 the festival of Harvest Home, if the ceremonies attendant on 

 bringing in the May, if the crowning of the fairest and most 

 virtuous maiden of the village annually, as Queen of the May, 

 if Milton's lovely " Hymn on May Morning " mean anything at 

 all, they point to an outdoor manner of existence practically 

 universal, and in which garden and meadow alike played an 

 important part ; and surely " Little Jack Horner who sat in the 

 corner " is the only evidence forthcoming on the other side that 

 the youth of " Merrie England " did not live out of doors even at 

 Christmas-time ! 



I am indebted to W. C. Hazlitt for an amusing story, which 

 gives indirect support to the theory that the English always lived 

 much in plein air. 



A man, whose demesne probably sloped to the water's edge, 

 having invited a friend to dinner, contrary to the wish of his wife, 

 insisted that the repast should be served on the river's bank. 

 The lady could not endure contradiction, and sat sulking, with 

 her back to the stream. The more he begged her to look pleasant, 

 the farther she pushed her chair from the table, till at last, backing 

 too near the edge of the river, she fell in. The husband, jumping 

 into a boat, insisted on going against the tide in search of her, 

 and when his friend remonstrated, urging him to look for her 

 down-stream, he refused, saying that, as his wife had been so 

 opposite all her life, he was sure her body would float against the 

 current. 



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