"Calls for the merry youngsters one by one, And, for their well performance, soon disposes To this a garland interwove with roses; To that a carved hook or well-wrought scrip; Gracing another with her cherry lip; To one her garter; to another then A handkerchief cast o'er and o'er again: And none returneth empty that hath spent His pains to fill their rural merriment." WHITSUNTIDE. Whitsuntide, the season of Pentecost, or the week following Whitsunday (the seventh Sunday after Easter), was another period of festivity in old English times. The morris-dance was commonly one of its features, as of the May-day sports. In _Henry V._ (ii. 4. 25) the Dauphin alludes to it:-- "'I say 't is meet we all go forth To view the sick and feeble parts of France; 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." Another custom connected with the festival was the "Whitsun-ale." Ale was so common a drink in England that it became a part of the name of various festal meetings. A "leet-ale" was a feast at the holding of a court-leet; a "lamb-ale" was a sheep-shearing merry-making; a "bride-ale" was a _bridal_, as we now call it--always a festive occasion; and a "church-ale" was connected with some ecclesiastical holiday. John Aubrey, the eminent antiquary, writing in the latter part of the 17th century, says that in his grandfather's days the church-ale at Whitsuntide furnished all the money needed for the relief of the parish poor. He adds: "In every parish is, or was, a church-house, to which belonged spits, crocks, etc., utensils for dressing provision. Here the housekeepers met and were merry, and gave their charity. The young people were there too, and had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, without scandal." The Puritan Stubbes, in the book before quoted (page 176, above), took a different view of these social gatherings. He says: "In certain towns, where drunken Bacchus bears sway, against Christmas and Easter, Whitsuntide, or some other time, the churchwardens of every parish, with the consent of the whole parish, provide half a score or twenty quarters of malt, whereof some they buy of the church stock, and some is given them of the parishioners themselves, every one conferring somewhat, according to his ability; which malt, being made into very strong ale or beer, is set to sale, either in the church or some other place assigned to that purpose. Then when this is set abroach, well is he that can get the soonest to it, and spend the most at it."