•290 
crowning the bride with flowers, is now all but obsolete; 
and though May is bright and lovely as ever, her accus¬ 
tomed wreath is wanting, as the poet most feelingly re¬ 
minds us: — 
“ Time was, blest Power ! when youths ami maids 
At peep of dawn would rise. 
And wander forth, in forest glades 
Thy birth to solemnize. 
“ Though mute the song — to grace the rite 
Untouch'd the hawthorn bough. 
Thy spirit triumphs o'er the slight: 
Man changes, but not Thou ! ” 
Christmas, it is true, is still greeted with verdant tro¬ 
phies; and in many places both houses and churches 
are decked with holly, box, &c. This custom is said to 
be of questionable origin, and is thus accounted for: — 
When idolatry prevailed in our island, the great annual 
east of Saturn was held in December under an oak; at 
which ceremony the priests required the worshippers to 
bring various evergreens to decorate the naked branches 
of their sylvan temple: and, as the first Christian 
churches were constructed of boughs, the converts, bor¬ 
rowing the idea from their heathen neighbours, adorned 
their rude and leafless edifices at Christmas in like 
manner. 
