132 
HOPE. 
thorn branches to the dead bodies of their 
parents and friends ; and at the interment of 
the corpse they strewed its branches upon the 
body, and afterwards covered it with stones, 
laughing through the whole of the ceremony. 
They considered death as the dawning of a 
life which should never cease. 
The hawthorn boughs were used in England 
as one of the principal decorations of the 
Maypole in our ancient village amusements; 
and this circumstance, together with its flow¬ 
ering in May, have obtained for it more com¬ 
monly the name of that month. What more 
delights the young and the light-hearted, than 
to gather from our hedge-rows a branch of this 
tree filled with its delicate flowers, whose 
petals are not unfrequently tinged with a 
beautiful delicate pink! and, as we read in 
the deathless works of Shakspere, 
Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade 
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep. 
Than doth a rich embroidered canopy 
To kings, that fear their subjects’ treachery ? 
O ! yes, it doth ; a thousand fold it doth. 
