says Herrick. At the two English universities the windows of the college chapels are still carefully decked with laurel at the season of Christmas. The holly is a plant of peculiar veneration at this period of the year,--so much so as to have acquired to itself by a popular metonymy the name of the season itself, being vulgarly called "Christmas." It is no doubt recommended to the general estimation in which it is held by the picturesque forms of its dark, glossy leaves and the brilliant clusters of its rich red berries. There is in the Harleian Manuscripts a very striking carol of so remote a date as the reign of Henry VI., which is quoted by most of the writers on this subject, and gives a very poetical statement of the respective claims of this plant and of the ivy to popular regard. The inference from the second and fourth verses (taken in connection with the authorities which place it amongst the plants used for the Christmas ornaments) would seem to be, that while the former was employed in the decorations within doors, the latter was confined to the exteriors of buildings. Mr. Brand, however, considers those passages to allude to its being used as a vintner's sign and infers from others of the verses that it was also amongst the evergreens employed at funerals. It runs thus:-- "Nay, Ivy! nay, it shall not be, I wys; Let Holy hafe the maystry, as the manner ys. "Holy stond in the halle, fayre to behold; Ivy stond without the dore: she ys ful sore a cold. Nay, Ivy! etc. "Holy and hys mery men they dawnsyn and they syng. Ivy and hur maydenys they wepyn and they wryng. Nay, Ivy! etc. "Ivy hath a lyve; she laghtyt with the cold: So mot they all hafe that wyth Ivy hold. Nay, Ivy! etc. "Holy hat berys as rede as any rose, The foster the hunters kepe hem from the doos. Nay, Ivy! etc. "Ivy hath berys as blake as any slo; Ther com the oule and ete hym as she goo. Nay, Ivy! etc. "Holy hath byrdys a ful fayre flok, The Nyghtyngale, the Poppingy, the gayntyl Lavyrok. Nay, Ivy! etc. "Good Ivy, what byrdys ast thou? Non but the howlet that kreye 'How, how!' Nay, Ivy! nay, hyt shal not, etc." We had some thoughts of modernizing the orthography, and very slightly the diction, of this curious old ballad; but it reads best in its own quaint garb, and even those of our friends who are not in the habit of perusing ancient writings will find scarcely any difficulty in making it out.