flower-decked pole. They were stay- 

 ing then at their palace at Greenwich, 

 and had gone out to meet the Corpo- 

 ration of London, who came bringing 

 home May blossoms from the hills of 

 Kent. Samuel Pepys, whose diary is 

 a running record of manners and cus- 

 toms of his time, says for May 1 , 1667 : 

 " To Westminster ; in the way meeting 

 many milkmaids with their garlands 

 upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler 

 before them ; and saw pretty Nelly 

 standing at her lodgings' door in Drury 

 Lane in her smock sleeves and bod- 

 ice, looking upon one; she seemed a 

 mighty pretty creature." 



Pretty Nelly was Nell Gwynn, at that 

 timeanactressat the King's Play-house, 

 and a very charming dancer herself. 



May-day began at midnight, and it 



was at this hour the breaking down 



of branches and boughs began, which 



were afterward decorated with gar- 



146 



