gentle folk; and from royalty to the 

 meanest hind, all took a part in its 

 ceremonies and observances. Indeed, 

 so deeply rooted have these festive in- 

 fluences and holiday customs become 

 that they are among the last to yield 

 to the more prosaic manners of our 

 times. 



For centuries on May-day lads and 

 lasses, with their elders as well, court 

 gallants and ladies gay, went forth 

 a-Maying, either to gather blossoms 

 still dripping with dew to hang before 

 the door of the one they loved, or to 

 bathe their faces in this dew to pre- 

 serve or increase their fairness. Henry 

 VIII., Bluff King Hal, as he was often 

 called, married at nineteen Catherine 

 of Aragon, who was twenty-five. The 

 first years of their married lives were 

 happy ones, and they had not long 

 been wedded when we hear of their 

 dancing gaily on May-day about a 

 , 145 



