LONDON AND SUBURBS. 31 



all the Bishops who were in London, together with an 

 innumerable concourse of people, were assembled there to 

 hear the beautiful Musique, which was esteemed the 

 principal of all Musique, which are held yearly in London. 

 The Friday's Gazettes afterwards made known that they 

 collected somewhat over £700 sterling in the day, which 

 was all devoted to the education and help for both sexes 

 of poor .priests' children. 



Ceremonies at the beginning of May. 



Now was seen at many places in the streets a custom, 

 plagsed, which milk-girls practise here in London, at 

 the beginning of May, or at the advent of summer. 

 They had bound together several vessels, karil, such as 

 cans, pint pots, drinking-cups, kannor, stop, skalar, 

 &C, which were mostly of silver, but sometimes also of 

 tin, bleck eller tenn, and made with them a device, 

 skapnad, either like a Pyramid, or like a man, or most 

 frequently like a woman, or also in some other fashion. 

 Some of these images, bilder, were decked with a 

 number of flowers. They were carried either on a 

 barrow or on the head. A spelman, or fiddler, who 

 played the viol, always accompanied them, together with 

 several girls. They mostly stood in front of each house 

 where they were accustomed to offer milk for sale, when 

 the fiddler fiddled, da spelmannen spelte, and one or 

 more of the girls danced. The usage was that after they 

 had done this, they received pence from the persons at 

 whose house they danced. They began this on the 1st 

 May, and kept it up for some days. 



The <\th May, 1748. 



In the morning I visited the Duke of Argyle, a man 

 who was a very great lover of Mathematique and Natural 

 Science [T. I. p. 384] but in particular of Botanique, and 

 the branch of that science which is called Dendrologie, 



