Come, row the boat, row! for the fairest maid. The roses we'll strew ere the dew-drop fade. Come, row the boat, row! Yoho! yoho! For the pride of the castle, fair Ellen, we go. Then row the boat, row! ye Levington boys. For who would not welcome the true lovers' joys? Row the boat, row! Yoho! yoho! To the bridal of Ellen, fair Ellen, we go! The very metre of the old song gives an idea of the boat pulled by stout rowers in the vigor of youth, bent upon a scene of festive rejoicing. Levington was the first village on the Orwell, celebrated for the cultivation of the rose, which the Lord of the Manor of Levington Hall, Hugh de Fastolf, encouraged, and gave permission on the day of the celebration of Ellen's marriage for the villagers to gather from the hall garden as many as they could place in their boat for the occasion; so that the village maidens who went up the Orwell in the Levington boat, were literally in the midst of roses. They arrived at St. Peter's Ford, to the no small delight of hundreds who sought for a bunch of flowers to scatter on the maiden's path. And ill the luck that maiden's lot, Who had her flowrets then forgot, Lest sorrow should her marriage mar, Or fill the bridal day with care. CHAPTER XXIX. THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. Children clad in white for the occasion--children, whose parents, as well as themselves, had been partakers of the bounty of Edmund Daundy--were, with their cheerful happy faces formed into two long rows from the mansion as far almost as Wolsey's house. Each had a significant flower in her hand, that she might join her partner, who held a corresponding flower on the opposite side of the street when the signal was given that the bride was coming. In this manner, the two nearest of the coming procession moved immediately forward, exclaiming, or chanting the short couplet-- 'Tis the bridal day, Prepare the way, Lead on! lead on! lead on! Come join our throng, Come sing our song, Be merry every one. None began to sing until they joined flowers, and each couple, following the leader, added their voices to those which went before, until the whole street burst forth into singing. The graceful Ellen, amidst her honorable maidens, walked through the respectful throng, and was met by a party of matrons, friends, and relations, who conducted her to the house of Daundy, where Latimer and a great company of friends were ready to proceed to the church of St. Lawrence.