The Wearing of the Shamrock and Rose 
circled round and round the bed ; the Mosquito-net canopy, 
however, being well tucked in, I was not touched by them, 
though my nervousness at this untoward invasion prevented 
my having what the Hindoos delightfully term “ a golden 
night ” — a night when one sleeps well ! I believe Bats 
can be tamed, and make interesting pets, but they are very 
uncanny creatures to look at. In Shakespeare’s days there 
seems to have been practised a sport called Batfowling, 
generally in the Autumn, when the trees, being leafless, the 
Bats take refuge in hedges, stray Holly-trees, or in hayricks. 
They are roused by the beating of sticks about their 
probable refuges, and then flying forth, flutter round the 
lanthorn or torches carried by the party of hunters, and 
are entangled in a net of fine twine fastened between two 
staves carried outspread behind the light. Bat mammas 
seem to have a hard time of it, since I believe they make no 
nests, but carry their young always about, clinging to them. 
April 23.- — St. George’s Day, and also the anniversary of 
Shakespeare’s birth and death. St. George’s Day used to 
be a great holiday with Englishmen in the days when 
Saints’ days were made a welcome excuse for the making 
merry in which old England delighted. In olden times 
it was the fashion, I have heard, to wear blue coats on 
St. George’s Day, and the blue Harebell was said to be his 
flower and wear his colours. It was also customary to wear 
a Rose, preferably a Red Rose. The “ Fighting Fifth ” 
(Northumberland Fusiliers), I believe, have worn a Rose on 
St. George’s Day ever since 1675 ; their badge is St. George 
and the Dragon, and the united Red and White Rose, 
lipped, ensigned with the royal crest. I think eleven 
other English regiments wear similar Roses, while Yorkshire 
regiments wear the White Rose and the Loyal North 
Lancashires a Red Rose. 
April 24.- — The present high tide of interest in senti- 
mental anniversaries has caused St. George’s Day to be 
kept in a way it has not been for years. London positively 
smelt of Roses, the papers say, yesterday ; they were sent 
in hundreds from the Rose-gardens of Kent, the Garden of 
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