There is reason to believe that this custom was introduced from England, but in Alderney it appears to have been a very ancient practice to keep the first of May as a holiday. Garlands of flowers were suspended across the street, under which the young people danced, and the day was generally wound-up by a sort of pic-nic supper or tea-drinking, to which each family contributed its quota. The introduction of late years of a large stranger population into that island, in consequence of the extensive fortifications and harbour works undertaken by Government, has completely changed the primitive character of the place, and has put an end to this picturesque custom. [21] 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). Whitsuntide. “And let us do it with no show of fear; No, with no more than if we heard that England Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance.” --_Shakspeare._ Whit Monday, Midsummer Day, and the day on which Her Majesty’s birth is celebrated, are all kept as holidays, and have long been appropriated to the mustering and exercising of the Militia.