THE HAWTHORN. 



193 



are tlie poor chimney-sweeps, who, on this their 

 single holiday, put off their sable suit for one day 

 in the year, to deck themselves with flowers and 

 green branches, and, after all, gain but little 

 sympathy for their maimed rights." In the 

 rural districts we may see, here and there, the 

 tall May-pole standing all the year round, but 

 never decked with flowers, never made the centre 

 of festivity. In a few remote parishes, the poor 

 farmer's boy yet rises earlier on May -morning 

 than on other days, and hastens to attach a 

 branch of Hawthorn to the cottage doors, claim- 

 ing as a reward, when the inmates are a-stir, 

 a slice of bread and cream ; and, in some few 

 towns and villages, principally in the West of 

 England, children on May -day carry round from 

 door to door, garlands of flowers decorated with 

 birds' eggs, and beg contributions of half-pence. 

 But, as far as regards legends, or the merry days 

 of old, the Hawthorn has fallen into the sere 

 and yellow leaf." 



I am indebted to a friend, the Rev. F. Webber^ 

 for the following account of the effort made by 

 the celebrated scholar Dr. Parr to keep up the 

 festivities of May-day. During one of my short 

 vacations in the year 182 — , accompanied by a 

 friend who is now rector of a parish in Dorsetshire, 

 I took a few days' ramble through some of the most 

 interesting parts of the county of Warwick. At 

 Leamington we fell in with a young gentleman, 

 who, after introducing us to the localities most 

 worthy of note in the neighbourhood, added 

 to the obligation we were already under to him 

 for his courtesy, by enabling us to become 

 acquainted with the famous Dr. Parr, who, he 



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