Shakespeare mentions it many times 
over, and when in its progress round 
the globe it reaches Scotland, its name 
changes entirely and it becomes gowan. 
Milton, who uses his knowledge of 
flowers so constantly, has in “ Comus” 
this passage: — 
“ The sounds and seas, with all their funny drove, 
Now to the moon in wavering morrice move ; 
And on the tawny sands and shelves 
Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. 
By dimpled brook, and fountain brim, 
The wood-nymphs deck’d with daisies trim, 
Their merry wakes and pastimes keep.” 
Burns has it, in “ Auld Lang Syne,” 
“We twa hae run about the braes, 
An’ pu’d the go wans fine.” 
In “ Guy Mannering ” Scott speaks 
of these little flowers also, — 
“ They [the sheets] were washed 
with the fairy-well water, and bleached 
on the bonnie white gowans, and 
beetled by Nelly and hersell.” 
There is a curious phrase, which 
almost comes under the head of slang, 
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