THE SOCIAL SIDE OF GARDENS 
ornaments worn were of pearl and diamond. Silver 
lamps were set upon the stone balustrades, and the 
night culminated in a dance representing Apollo and 
the nine Muses given on one of the terraces before 
a dark background of box and ilex. 
The love of the out-of-doors as a place for social 
enjoyment was by no means confined to the rich or to 
the aristocracy. Hardly a village but had its tree- 
grown common, where young and old met for the day’s 
relaxation after working hours, the old to gossip, the 
young for trials of strength and dancing. May-day in 
an English village of the “spacious times” must have 
been a scene worth remembering. The May-pole, reared 
in the center of the green, was crowned with a garland of 
spring flowers and wreathed in greenery. From it 
radiated the long flower-trimmed ribbons to be held by 
the fairest maids of the country round as they went 
through the intricate paces of their dance, keeping time 
to ballads sung by the merry circle of young men in 
their best holiday dress, who, at a given moment, 
joined in the dance and swept their sweethearts away 
with garlands flung about their necks amid the laughter 
and rough jesting of the jolly crowd. 
Following this came the wrestling matches, the single 
stick bouts, the foot-races, and jumping matches. Prizes 
of casks of ale, butts full of malmsey, fat pigs, silver pieces 
and horses bridled with silver bits were offered, and the 
interest in these events was so intense that the defeat of 
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