Note 340 — Chapter V · THE RELIGION OF THE FOLK
Reading edition
The Puritan Fetherston, in his Dialogue agaynst light, lewde, and lascivious Dancing (1583), sign. D. 7, says that he has ‘hearde of tenne maidens which went to set May, and nine of them came home with childe.’ Stubbes, i. 149, has a very similar observation. Cf. the adventures of Dr. Fitzpiers and Suke Damson on Midsummer Eve in Thomas Hardy’s novel, The Woodlanders, ch. xx.