XXIII 



But the Puritans were not blind to the evils already alluded 

 to, and, moreover, it is clear that they considered the May-pole 

 to be a relic of those heathen rites performed by the ancients in 

 their worship of the goddess Flora : it was for this reason that 

 Philip Stubs arraigned the May-games in 1595, in his " Anat- 

 omie of Abuses ;" and for this reason sixty years later, Thom- 

 as Hall made them the subject of his " Funebria Florai ; or, 

 Downfall of May-games," &c. Here, in New England, our 

 good old Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, also condemned 

 them for the same reason. 



Not long after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth some 

 e*vents occurred in their neighborhood, which called forth an 

 official denunciation of May-day festivities, by the colonial au- 

 thorities ; and the rebuke was administered in so emphatic a 

 manner that, • if it has not effectually prevented a repetition of 

 these ceremonies for all time, in New England, it has, at least, 

 brought upon them a stigma which the lapse of two centuries 

 has not wholly removed. 



The Chair then proceeded to give an account of "Thomas 

 Morton, of Clifford's Inn, Gent." — as he styles himself in his 

 "New English Canaan' 1 — and of the famous May-day revels 

 at " Ma-re Mount," now Mount Wollaston, in Quincy, which 

 were celebrated under his direction in 1626. 



After detailing the particulars of the action of the colonial 

 authorities against Morton, the dispersion of his followers and 

 the destruction of his plantation, the Chair narrated the princi- 

 pal known facts of his subsequent career down to the time of 

 his death at York in Maine, in 1646, and stated that this first 

 May-day jubilee continued to be, for generations, the last. 

 There had been May-day festivities in Maine before the affair 

 at Mt. Wollaston, and there is some reason to suppose that 

 Morton was a participant in those revelries ; but, after his ex- 

 pulsion, and the destruction of his plantation at ll Mount Dagon" 

 no Puritan father was ever offended by the sight of the scanda- 

 lous altar of Flora enticingly set up before the innocent eyes 



