180 



THE HAWTHORN. 



life have been ^vo^king in ourselves a change too . 

 perceptible — a common shelter from sun or shower 

 to the rude patriarchs of the hamlet, the same- 

 group (nearly, for some are not) that half a cen- 

 tury ago, tottered as feebly to their childish 

 amusements, as now they do to their shady seat 

 beneath its branches, and from the self-same 

 cabins too — and the contemporary of all the by- 

 gone sports that old and young loved to look back 

 upon, or forward to, with equal mterest. 



The Hawthorn, too, is a tree which, from its 

 association with the village festivities of the first 

 of May, possesses a kind of antiquarian interest, 

 which is deepened by the recollection that it 

 illustrates the simple annals of the poor." The 

 first day of the month, from which it derived its 

 name, " May -bush," was formerly a general rustic 

 holiday, looked forward to, and prepared for, 

 with as much zest as accompanies many a nobler 

 entertainment ; and it was a matter of no little 

 solicitude whether the Hawthorn would be fully 

 blown in good time; for a "bunch of May" was 

 the cro^raing ornament of the Maypole, and en- 

 circled the head of the May-queen, her consort 

 for the day being crowned with the more manly 

 Oak. 



Before the alteration of the style* in 1752, 

 the Hawthorn rarely failed to be in flovv'er in 



* The ancient church calendar was constructed on the erroneous 

 supposition that the year contained 365^ days exactly, being nearly 

 twelve minutes too much. The error, therefore, in 129 years amounts 

 to a whole day. In consequence of the inconrenience which was 

 foiand to result from this error diuing a long course of years, Pope 

 Gregor)" XIII., in the month of March, 1582, issued a brief, in 

 which he abolished the old calendar, and substituted that which has 

 since been received in all Christian countries, except Russia, under 

 the name of the Gregorian Calendar or New Style {S.S.). Gregory. 



