Note 21 — Chapter I · Festival Customs.

Editor’s Note.—“Bourne (‘Antiquit. Vulg.’ chap, xxv.) tells us that in his time, in the villages in the North of England, the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight on the first of May, and walk to some neighbouring wood, accompanied with music and the blowing of horns, where they broke down branches from the trees and adorned them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. This done, they returned homewards with their booty about the time of sunrise, and made their doors and windows triumph in the flowery spoil.” (Quoted in Brand’s Popular Antiquities, p. 121).