May 1.
May Day!—the word brings back all sorts of Tudor memories when it was alleged England was truly merrie, though, perhaps, if it were possible to be translated' back to those times, it might be found that those glad days were after all not really so bright. The idea is very much the same as the continual saying by so many people that their school days were the really happy time in their life. Almost -invariably the school boy does not share that opinion, Today, a few: centuries ago, fall classes of people would go a'pleasuring, up with the dawn: end into the woods to bring back branches of trees, and flowers in triumph to the villages and towns, the procession being led by the bearers of the Maypole who would set it up for dancing throughout the day. That was one of the many things that the Puritans could not possibly bear. John Stubbes in the "Anatomy of Abuses" speaks of them as stinckyng idols" about which people "leave and dance, as the heathen did." Your Puritan, as Macauley points out, delighted in ' sonorous psalmody in which the nasal tones predominated. It was a sad pleasure but the Puritans loved it and scorned the lighter enjoyment of the nimble lads and lasses as they danced round the Maypole.
Tt is an interesting fact that the unco guids managed to have their way and succeeded in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.