Ye shepherdesses, in a goodly round,
Purpled with health, as in the greenwood shade,
Incontinent ye thump the echoing ground,
And deftly lead the dance along the glade;
(O may no showers your merry makes affray!)
Hail at the opening, at the closing day,
All hail, ye Bonnibels, to your own season, May.

Nor ye absent yourselves, ye shepherd swains,
But lead to dance and song the liberal May,
And while in jocund ranks you beat the plains,
Your flocks shall nibble and your lambkins play,
Frisking in glee. To May your garlands bring,
And ever and anon her praises sing:

The woods shall echo May,-with May the vallies ring.

MAY DAY IN LONDON.

The traunt schoolboy now at eve we meet,
Fatigued and sweating thro' the crowded street,
His shoe embrown'd at once with dust and clay,
With whitethorn loaded, which he takes for May.
Round his flapp'd hat in rings the cowslips twine,
Or in cleft osiers form a golden line.

On milk-pail rear'd the borrow'd salvers glare,
Topp'd with a tankard, which two porters bear,
Reeking they slowly toil o'er rugged stones,
And joyless milkmaids dance with aching bones.

The Milkmaids' Dance.

A pageant quite as gay, of less estate,
With flowers made and solid silver plate-
A lesser garland-on a damask bed,
Was carried on a skilful porter's head;
It stopp'd at every customer's street-door,

And all the milkmaids ranged themselves before;
The fiddler's quick'ning elbow quicker flew,
And then he stamp'd, and then the galliard grew.
Then cows the meadows ranged and fed on grass,
And milk was sometimes water'd-now, alas!
In huge first floors each cow, a prison'd guest,
Eats rancid oil-cake in unnat❜ral rest,

Bids from her udder unconcocted flow

A stream a few short hours will turn to-foh!
Milk manufactories usurp the place

Of wholesome dairies, and the milkmaid's face,
And garlands go no more, and milkmaids cease-
Yet tell me one thing, and I'll be at peace;
May I, ye milk companions, hope to see
Old "milk mi-eau" once more dilute my tea?

But neither lamb, nor kid, nor calf, nor Tray
Dance like Buxoma on the first of May.

Also, on May-day we have the superstitions of innocence, or ignorance if the reader please-no matter which, it is the same thing. In the same poet's budget of country charms and divinations be

Gay.

longing to different seasons, he represents
a young girl divining respecting her
sweetheart, with as much certainty as the
Pythian dame concerning the fate of
nations.

Last May-day fair I search'd to find a snail
That might my secret lover's name reveal:
Upon a gooseberry-bush a snail I found,
For always snails near sweetest fruit abound.
I seiz'd the vermine; home I quickly sped,
And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread.
Slow crawl'd the snail, and if I right can spell,
In the soft ashes mark'd a curious L:

Oh, may this wond'rous omen lucky prove!
For L is found in Luberkin and Love.

With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,
And turn me thrice around, around, around.

MAY DAY IN DUBLIN.
For the Every-Day Book.
On the first day of May, in Dublin and
its vicinity, it is customary for young men
and boys to go a few miles out of
town in the morning, for the purpose of
cutting a May-bush. This is generally a
white thorn, of about four or five feet
high, and they carry it to the street or
place of their residence, in the centre of
which they dig a hole, and having planted
the bush, they go round to every house
and collect money. They then buy a
pound or more of candles, and fasten
them to various parts of the tree or bush,
in such a manner so as to avoid burning
it. Another portion of "the collection
is expended in the purchase of a heap of
turf, sufficient for a large fire, and, if the
funds will allow, an old tar barrel. For-
merly it was not considered complete with-
out having a horse's skull and other bones

to burn in the fire. The depots for these
bones were the tanners' yards in a part of
the suburbs, called Kilmainham; and on
May morning, groups of boys drag loads
of bones to their several destinations.
This practice gave rise to a threat, yet
made use of:-"I will drag you like a
horse's head to the bone-fire." About
dusk when no more money can be col-
'ected, the bush is trimmed, the turf and
bones are made ready to set on fire, the
candles are all lighted, the bush fully
illuminated, and the boys giving three
huzzas, begin to dance and jump round

Gay.

it. If their money will afford the expenditure, they have a pot of porter to drink turf and bones are set fire to, and when round. After an hour or so, the heap of the candles are burnt out, the bush is taken

up and thrown into the flames. They continue playing about until the fire is burnt out; each then returns to his home; and so ends their May-day.

About two or three miles from Dublin, called Finglass; it is prettily situated, on the great northern road, is a village and is the only place I know of in the is kept up in the old style. A high pole neighbourhood of Dublin, where May-day is decorated with garlands, and visiters come in from different parts of the country, and dance round it to whatever The best male and female dancer are music chance may have conducted there. chosen king and queen, and placed on

chairs.

When the dancing is over, they are carried by some of the party to an adjacent public-house, where they regale themselves with ham, beef, whiskeypunch, ale, cakes, and porter, after which they generally have a dance in-doors, and then disperse.

There is an old song relating to the above custom, beginning

Ye lads and lasses all to-day,
To Finglass let us haste away;
With hearts so light and dresses gay
To dance around the Maypole.-
A. O. B.

It is communicated by T. A. that it was formerly a custom in Cheshire for young men to place birchen boughs on May-day over the doors of their mistresses, and marke the residence of a scold by an alder bough. There is an old rhyme which mentions peculiar boughs for various tempers, an owler (alder) for a scolder, a nut for a slut, &c. Mr. Ormerode, the county historian, presumes the practice is disused; but he mentions that in the main street of Weverham, in Cheshire, are two Maypoles, which are de corated on this day with all due attention to the ancient solemnity: the sides are hung with garlands, and the top terminat

Fair Flora! now attend thy sportful feast,
Of which some days I with design have past ;-
A part in April and a part in May

Thou claims't, and both command my tuneful lay;
And as the confines of two months are thine

To sing of both the double task be mine.
Circus and stage are open now and free-
Goddess! again thy feast my theme must be.
Since new opinions oft delusive are

Do thou, O Flora, who thou art declare ;
Why should thy poet on conjectures dwell?
Thy name and attributes thou best canʼst tell,
Thus I.-to which she ready answer made,
And rosy sweets attended what she said;
Though, now corrupted, Flora be my name,
From the Greek Chloris that corruption came :—
In fields where happy mortals whilome stray'd*
Chloris my name, I was a rural maid;
To praise herself a modest nymph will shun,
But yet a god was by my beauty won.

Flora then relates, that Zephyr became enamoured of her as Boreas had been, that "by just marriage to his bed," she was united to Zephyr, who assigned

her the dominion over Spring, and that
she strews the earth with flowers and pre-
sides over gardens. She further says, as
the deity of flowers,-

I also rule the plains.
When the crops flourish in the golden field;
The harvest will undoubted plenty yield;
If purple clusters flourish on the vine,
The presses will abound with racy wine;
The flowering olive makes a beauteous year,
And how can bloomless trees ripe apples bear?
The flower destroyed of vetches, beans, and peas,
You must expect but small or no increase;
The gift of honey's mine, the painful bees,
That gather sweets from flowers or blooming trees,
To scented shrubs and violets I invite,
In which I know they take the most delight;
A flower an emblem of young years is seen,
With all its leaves around it fresh and green;
So youth appears, when health the body sways,
And gladness in the mind luxuriant plays.

From these allegorical ascriptions, the Roman people worshipped Flora, and

celebrated her festivals by ceremonies and rejoicings, and offerings of spring flowers