Thomas Hall, another author of the same class, was also moved to eloquence on the subject: “Had this rudeness been acted only in some ignorant and obscure parts of the land I had been silent; but when I perceived that the complaints were general from all parts of the land, and that even in Cheapside itself the rude rabble had set up this ensign of profaneness, and had put the Lord Mayor to the trouble of seeing it pulled down, I could not, out of my dearest respects and tender compassion to the land of my nativity, and for the prevention of like disorders (if possible) for the future, but put pen to paper, and discover the sinful use and vile profaneness that attend such misrule.”[329] As every one knows, the Puritans had their will of the May-poles, and the Long Parliament in April 1644 decreed their removal as “a heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and wickednesse.” They were indeed reinstated after the Restoration and the old festivities revived, but the Puritan epoch had left its mark upon the spirit of the people, and May-day was never again quite what it had been, so that the following lament by a writer of Cromwell’s time was not quite out of date even when King Charles had again come to his own:— Happy the age and harmlesse were the dayes (For then true love and amity was found) When every village did a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 merry lasses daunc’d the rod about. Then Friendship to their banquets bid the guests And poor men far’d the better for their feasts. * * * * * But since the Summer poles were overthrown, And all good sports and merriments decayed, How times and men are chang’d so well is knowne, It were but labour lost if more were said. In England the once universal joy-making on the first of May has dwindled into a mere eleemosynary device, and every year takes away something even from this poor survival. We are only reminded of the day in London by here and there a peripatetic Jack-in-the-Green with his retinue of begging clowns, by the gay ribbons on a few draught horses, and by the newspaper reports of the election of Mr. Ruskin’s May-queen at Whitelands College. But in many old-world towns and villages throughout the country the children still carry round wands, with bunches of flowers tied to them, or garlands, consisting of a little bower fashioned out of two crossed hoops, hidden in flowers, with a doll seated in the centre. The obvious intention of this pretty custom is the collection of coppers, which no one will grudge. It is, so to say, a religious ceremony, whereof only the collection has survived, as the following old rhyme sufficiently illustrates:— Gentlemen and ladies! We wish you happy May; We’ve come to show our garlands, Because it is May-day; Come, kiss my face, and smell my mace, And give the lord and lady something.[330]