WALNUT TREE. 



37T 



Allusions are frequently made to this nuptial sport, 

 by the poets : 



" Let ihe air with Hymen ring. 

 Hymen, lo Hymen, sing. 

 Soon the nuts will now be flung : 

 Soon the wanton verses sung ; 

 Soon the bridegroom will be told 

 Of the tricks he played of old. 

 License then his love had got. 

 But a husband has it not : 

 Let the air with Hymen ring, 

 liymen, lo Hymen, sing." 



Leigh Hunt, from Catullus. 



Herrick has introduced this custom in his Epithala- 

 mium on Sir Thomas Southvrell and his lady : 



Now bar the door, the bridegi-oom puts 

 The eager boys to gather nuts." 



A note on this passage says — " The ceremony of throw- 

 ing nuts at a wedding, for which boys scrambled, was of 

 Athenian origin.'" 



Virgil has an allusion to it in his eighth pastoral : 



" tibi ducitur uxor : 



Sparge, marite, nuces ' 



prepare the lights, 



O Mopsus ! and perform the bridal rites ; 

 Scatter thy nuts among the scrambling boys.'" 

 Dryden's Virgil. 



Nuts of various kinds made an important figure in the 

 country festivals at Christmas some years back : Spenser 

 alludes to these games in the Shepherd's Calendar for 

 December : 



