THE HAWTHORN. 



191 



horns : men, women, and children, all dressed in 

 their gayest habiliments and laden with green 

 boughs, completed the procession. As they passed 

 through the streets of London, they found 



^' Each street a park, 

 Made green, and trimm'd with trees ; " 



the church-porches decorated 



With Hawthorn buds, and sweet eglantine, 

 And garlands of roses 



they heard music sounding from e\ery quarter, 

 and here and there they beheld in their way some 

 May-pole, preserved from the last year, already 

 elevated, and a wide circle of beaming faces 

 dancing round it. The church of St. Andrew 

 the Apostle was called St. Andrew Under shafts 

 from the circumstance that from time immemorial 

 a May -pole or shaft had been set up there, which 

 towered considerably above the church -tower. 

 Long streamers or flags were now attached to the 

 pole, which was then finally reared to its proper 

 position amidst the loud cheers of the multitudes 

 gathered round. Summer-halls, bowers, and ar- 

 bours were now formed near it ; the Lord and Lady 

 of the ^lay were chosen, and decorated with scarfs, 

 ribbons, and other braveries; and then the dances, 

 feastings, and merriment of the day fairly began. 

 The King himself frequently took part in these 

 festivities, for, as we learn from HalVs Chronicle, 

 his Grace being young, and not willing to be 

 idle, rose in the morning very early to fetch May 

 or green boughs, himself fresh and richly appa- 

 relled, and clothed all his knights, squires, and 

 gentlemen in white satin, and all his guard and 

 yeomen of the crown in white sarcenet. And so 



