THE HAWTHORN. 



181 



good time : but since that period^ May-day falling 

 eleven or twelve days earlier, its blossoms are 

 rarely fully expanded even in the south of Eng- 

 land, until the second week in the month.* In 

 mountainous districts, the Highlands, for instance, 

 it is frequently in full perfection so late as the 

 middle of June. 



By the ancient Greeks its flowers were made 

 the emblem of Hope, and it was probably regarded 

 in the same light by the Romans, as we read that 

 its wood was chosen to make the torch carried 

 before the bride at nuptial processions. In some 

 countries it is regarded with a kind of veneration, 

 from beino^ believed to be the tree used to form 

 the crown placed on our Blessed Saviour's head 

 before His Crucifixion. Whether or not this 

 opinion be a correct one is scarcely a fit subject 

 for discussion in this or any other work. But 

 if it really be the case, it is not improbable that 

 it was selected by the Roman soldiers with the 



in order to restore tlie commencement of the year to the same place 

 in the seasons that it had occupied at the time of the Council of 

 Nice (a.d. 325), directed the day following the feast of St. Francis, 

 that is to say the 5th of October, 1582, to be reckoned as the 15th 

 of that month. The New Style was adopted in Britain in 1752 ; 

 from that year till 1800, May-day fell eleven days earlier ; and dur- 

 ing the present century it falls twelve days earlier than when calcu- 

 lated by the Old Style (O.S.) ; May-day of the Season, being now 

 the 13th day of the month. 



^ I have, however, seen it in Devonshire so early as the 29th of 

 April : and in the year, 1846, it was gathered in Cornwall on the 

 18th of April. So unusually mild was the season of that year, that 

 the Oaks atClowance, Cornwall, had made shoots between two and three 

 inches long on the 11th of April ; though it not unfrequently happens 

 that the Oak is not sufficiently in leaf to hide King Charles'' on the 

 29th of !May. The blossom of the Hawthorn, though early, Avas so 

 exceedingly scarce that many trees might be searched in vain for a 

 single sprig, and scarcely one tree in a hundred bore an average crop 

 of flowers. 



