138 THE ASSOCIATIOISIS OF FLOWERS 
a holiday; but this is only in villages remote from towns, 
which old customs haunt the longest. In some villages 
of Cornwall May-day sports are continued in almost their 
primitive fashion ; the day is devoted to out-of-doors en- 
joyment, and at Helston the youths and maidens cover 
themselves with the snowy wreaths of spring, and, pre- 
ceded by the queen of the May, dance merrily through 
the houses, and scatter flowers about them. 
It is generally thought that our May-day customs are 
derived from the practice observed by the ancients, of 
dedicating the last four days of May and the first of April 
to the goddess Flora. In our country, three or four cen- 
turies ago. May was kept universally. Even the avenues 
of the Metropolis looked like bowers, from the boughs 
which each man hung over his doorway. The young 
people of both sexes went a-Maying after midnight, ac- 
companied by bands of music. Crowds of them went out 
of the town, as Stow says, “ into the sweet meadows and 
green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty 
and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmony of 
birds, praising God after their kind.” They returned at 
sunrise, in joyful procession, carrying large boughs of 
hawthorn, birch, and other trees, garlanded with coronals 
of wild flowers, and bearing large nosegays in their hands, 
with which they decorated the doors and windows of their 
houses. 
Hear our old poet Herrick invoking his mistress on a 
May morning : 
Each flower has wept and bow’d toward th’ East 
Above an hour since, yet you are not dress’d — 
Nay, not so much as out of bed. 
When all the birds have matin said. 
And sung their thankful hymns; — ’t is sin. 
Nay, profanation, to keep in; 
Whereas a thousand virgins on this day 
Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in May. 
Rise ! and put on your foliage, and be seen 
To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green. 
And sweet as Flora. Take no care 
For jewels for your gown or hair; 
