202 
Rosemary. 
times placed within the coffin ; and in some secluded villages 
these innocent customs are still practised. This plant is like¬ 
wise often planted near or upon graves, to which practice 
Kirke White thus mournfully refers : 
“ Come, funeral flower! who lovest to dwell 
With the pale corse in lonely tomb, 
And throw across the desert gloom 
A sweet decaying smell; 
Come, press my lips, and lie with me 
Beneath the lowly alder-tree, 
And we will sleep a pleasant sleep, 
And not a care shall dare intrude, 
To break the marble solitude, 
So peaceful and so deep.” 
Moore parallels not only this funereal imagery, but also alludes 
to its perfuming the desert gloom: 
“The humble rosemary, 
Whose sweets so thanklessly are shed 
To scent the desert and the dead.” 
In the days of yore, rosemary was in great request at Christ¬ 
mas-tide for decorative purposes : the roast beef was crested 
with bays and rosemary; the flaming tankards were flavoured 
with sprigs of it, and the liquor stirred with it, in order, as our 
ancestors fancied, to improve its flavour. One of the mummers 
attendant upon Father Christmas, who personated New Year’s 
Gift, was represented by a man wearing a blue coat, and hold¬ 
ing in his hand a sprig of rosemary. The silvery leaves of 
this plant mingled well with the glossy holly and yellow-green 
mistletoe, in decking rooms and churches. Herrick alludes to 
all these evergreens in the following lines, as also to the custom 
of replacing them, after a certain time, by others typical of 
festivals occurring later in the year: 
“ Down with the rosemary, and so 
Down with the baies and mistletoe; 
Down with the holly, ivy, all 
Wherewith ye deck the Christmas hall; 
No one least branch leave there behind. 
For look how many leaves there be 
Neglected there—maids, ’tend to me— 
So many goblins ye shall see.” 
The common rosemary is supposed to have been introduced 
into England by the monks, in the gardens of whose monas- 
