THE HAWTHORN. 



195 



in pronouncing to be the mighty Grecian. On our 

 introduction to him by our friend, he received 

 us with the greatest urbanity and kindness, and 

 immediately allotted us our partners in the dance. 

 I forget the person selected by the doctor to 

 lead off the dance with him, but I think it was 

 the oldest lady of the village. After we had 

 danced for some time, we adjourned by parti- 

 cular invitation to the parsonage, where we were 

 hospitably refreshed after our exertions, the party 

 on the green, I doubt not, being not a httle glad 

 to be relieved from the restraint caused by our 

 presence."* 



In spite, however, of the exertions made by 

 Dr. Parr and many others, little more than the 

 name of " May-day" remains, and the legendary 

 interest which once attached to the Hawthorn 

 has faded, in like manner. Yet, after all, perhaps, 

 we ought not to regret this ; for the religious 

 legends afforded, at the best, an unprofitable sub- 

 ject for speculation, and tended rather to lead 

 away the mind from the Creator to the creature 

 than to stimulate true piety : and the morning's 

 merriment on May-day was but too frequently 

 the forerunner of rioting and dissipation in the 

 evening. In the minds of those who look aright 

 on the works of Nature, more real devotion and 

 a greater amount of pleasurable feeling will be 

 excited by the fragrance, symmetry, colouring, 

 and freshness of a Hawthorn wreath, than could 

 be produced by the most plausible monkish tradi- 



* The doctor is said to have kept the large crown of the Ma^'-pole 

 in a closet of his house, from whence it was produced every May- 

 day, with fresh flowers and streamers, preparatory to its elevation, 

 and to the doctor's appearance in the ring. 



