it; (Prince James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of England, commanded twelve feamen off a boord to come and officiate the business, whereupon they came and brought their cables, Pullies, and other tacklings, with fix great anchors ;) after these were brought three Crowns, bore by three men bare-headed, and a streamer displaying all the way before them; Drums beating, and other musick playing; numerous multitudes of people thronging the streets with great fhouts and acclamations all day long. The May-pole then being joyned together, and hoopt about with bands of iron, the crown and cane with the King's Arms richly gilded, was placed on the head of it, a large top like a Balcony was about the middle of it." Then amid sounds of trumpets and drums, the loud cheerings, and the shouts of the people, the May-pole, "far more glorious, bigger, and higher than ever any one that ftood before it," was raifed upright, which highly did pleafe the merrie Monarch, and the illustrious Prince, Duke of York; and "little children did much rejoice, and antient people did clap their hands, faying, golden days began to appear."

A crufade against May-poles was commenced in the reign of the youthful Edward the Sixth; and the Lords and Commons folemnly enacted in 1644, "that all and fingular May Poles that are or shall be erected, shall be taken down and removed by the constable," under a penalty upon "the faid officers, to be fined five fhillings every week till the faid May-pole be taken down." Almost the first act of the restored Charles, was the repeal of thefe edicts. Maypoles are no longer an inftitution of the country, and "Pasquil's

Palinodia" thus mourned the change in the customs of merrie England :

Happy the age, and harmlesse were the dayes

(For then true love and amity were found),

When every village did a May Pole raise,

And Whitsun ales and May Games did abound,
And all the lusty yonkers in a rout,

With morry lasses daunced the rod about,
Then Friendship to their banquets bid the guests,
And poore men fared the better for their feasts.

The lords of castles, mannors, townes, and towers,
Rejoiced when they beheld the farmers flourish,
And would come downe unto the summer bowers,
To see the country gallants dance the Morrice.
But since the summer Poles were overthrown,

And all good sports and merriments decayed,
How times and men are changed, so well is knowne,
It were but labour lost if more were said.

SHEPHERDS AND SHEPHERDESSES.

HE charms of rural and paftoral life have in almost every age been fung by poets; fcenes of Arcadian innocence and fimplicity have been prefented by painters in funny pictures, and with the moft pleafing colours; and effayists and novelifts have drawn abundant materials

from paftoral life and occupations. The

works of old Spenfer abound with the loves and woes of gentle fhepherds; and Milton, turning his gaze awhile from a " Paradise Loft," and the glittering thrones of the Cherubim, found there was yet an elyfium on earth; and exclaimed in the gladfome ftrains of "L'Allegro,".

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures,

As the landscape round it measures,

Russet lawns, and fallows gray

Where the nibbling flocks do stray.

It was fuch a fcene, perhaps, as that, which Sir Philip Sidney had already defcribed in his "Arcadia : ".

"There were hills which garnished their proud heights with ftately trees; humble valleys whofe bafe eftate feemed comforted with the refreshing of filver rivers; meadows enamelled with all forts of eye-pleafing flowers; thickets which, being lined with most pleasant shade, were witneffed fo, by the cheerful difpofition of many well-tuned birds; each pasture ftored with fheep feeding with fober security, while the pretty lambs, with bleating oratory, craved the dam's comfort; here a fhepherd's boy piping as though he should never be old, there a young fhepherdefs knitting, and withal finging, and it seemed that her voice comforted her hands to work, and her hands kept time to her voice-mufic."

Pope, too, has told of the happy fecurity of pastoral life, in the couplet,

Piping on their reeds the shepherds go,

Nor fear an ambush, nor suspect a foe.

The elegant Wotton appreciated in his day these rural charms, and thus tuned his mufic to their praise :

Mistaken mortals! did you know

Where joy, heart's-ease, and comforts grow,
You'd scorn proud towers,

And seek them in these bowers;

Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may shake,

But blustering care could never tempest make,

Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us,

Save of fountains that glide by us.

Here's no fantastic masque or dance,
But of our kids that frisk and prance;

Nor wars are seen,

Unless upon the green

Two harmless lambs are butting one another—

Which done, doth bleating run each to his mother;

And wounds are never found,

Save what the ploughshare gives the ground.

England's greatest dramatist makes the unfortunate Henry thus figh, on the hard-fought field of Towton, for the happiness of a fhepherd's life :-

So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years,

Pass'd over to the end they were created,

Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.

Ah! what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely!

Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade

To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy

To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery?
Oh yes it doth; a thousand fold it doth.
And to conclude,-the shepherd's homely curds,
His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,