THE HAWTHORN. 85 



mountainous districts, — the Highlands, for instance, — it is 

 frequently in full perfection so late as the middle of June. 



By the ancient Greeks its flowers were made the emblem 

 of Hope, and it was probably regarded in the same light by 

 the Eomans, as we read that its wood was chosen to make 

 the torch carried before the bride at nuptial processions. 

 In some countries it is regarded with a kind of veneration, 

 from being believed to be the tree used to form the crown 

 placed on our Blessed Saviour's head before His Crucifixion. 

 Whether or not this opinion be a correct one is scarcely a 

 fit subject for discussion in this or any other work. But 

 if it really be the case, it is not improbable that it was 

 selected by the Eoman soldiers with the object of making 

 the emblem of hope and happiness the instrument of in- 

 flicting pain. Such a motive would accord well with the 

 spirit which demanded the Cross and the purple robe. In 

 some parts of France, the country people affirm that the 

 Hawthorn utters groans and sighs on the evening of Good 

 Friday ; and when a thunderstorm is impending, they 

 gravely adorn their hats with a bunch of its leaves, in the 

 belief that, thus protected, the lightning cannot touch them. 

 It is also related, that on the morning which followed the 

 horrible massacre of the French Protestants by the Eoman 

 Catholics on St. Bartholomew's day, a Hawthorn in the 

 churchyard of St. Innocent's, in Paris, suddenly put forth 

 its blossoms for the second time. 



It is far from improbable that the legend of "The 

 Glastonbury Thorn" was originally connected with some 

 superstitious veneration of the Hawthorn, yet more ancient 

 than itself. According to this legend, Joseph of Arimath?ea, 

 attended by twelve companions, came to preach the Gospel 

 in Britain, and landed on the Isle of Avelon.^ Here he 

 fixed his staff in the ground (a dry Thorn sapling, which 

 had been his companion through all the countries he had 



1 The high ground on which the Abbey of Glastonbury stands is 

 thus named, and tradition asserts that it was in remote times really 

 an island, the meadows around it having been since formed by the 

 retiring of the sea. 



