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turned up while we write under the site of the late Royal Exchange. In seeking a firm foundation for the new building, the workmen in one place have been obliged to make their way through a stratum, at least twelve or fifteen feet in thickness, of moist, black earth, interspersed with shells of fishes, horns, bones, and other animal remains. At the bottom, too, some strong oaken piles had been driven in to support the made earth. It was evidently a place into which rubbish of all kinds had been thrown, to fill up either a deserted gravel-pit, or more probably a natural hollow formed by some stray rivulet from the great fen to the north, over which it was desired to build. The Roman remains found in Prince's Street and near the Bank are described by Mr. Smith as having been more various and of a more interesting kind than had been met with in any other part of London; but we could not learn that anything except a few bits of pottery and some common coins had been picked up here. Over the black rubbish, however, laid on a substratum of gravelly earth about two feet thick, were remains of Roman building, in particular a square-shaped tablet, apparently the basis of a pillar, built of large flat bricks, encrusted with a very hard cement in which the mouldings were formed, exactly as is done in the London architecture of the present day. Nay, over this, and separated from it by some more made earth, were other extensive stone and brick foundations, which had also very much of a Roman look, and yet appeared evidently to have been laid down without any regard to those below, or perhaps even a knowledge of their existence. From this and other appearances of the same kind it would almost seem that, even during the period of the Roman occupation, the original Romar London had been in great part superseded by a new city built over it and out of its ruins.

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[Urns, Vases, Key, Bead, and Fragment of Pottery, found in Lombard Street, 1785.]

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THERE was an interesting remnant of the habits and feelings of our ancestors, existing down to nearly the close of the last century, when we find it recorded that on the first of May, "according to annual and superstitious custom, a number of persons went into the fields and bathed their faces with the dew of the grass, under the idea that it would render them beautiful." And were they very far wrong? We suspect that, if the enlightened writer and the "superstitious persons had stood side by side to test the value of the custom, the latter would have had much the best of the argument. Their glowing cheeks and animated features, kissed by the young May herself in token of her approbation of such loving votaries, would certainly have put to shame his pale countenance yet heavy with sleep. Pepys, about a century and a quarter earlier, knew better than to call so beautiful a custom by so unworthy a name. He writes in his diary one day, "My wife away down with Jane and W. Hewer to Woolwich, in order to a little air, and to lie there to-night, and so to gather May-dew to-morrow morning, which

Mrs. Turner has taught her is the only thing in the world to wash her face with." He emphatically adds, "I am contented with it." No doubt. Excellent Mrs. Turner! would there were many such teachers now! What matters it whether the dew, as was said, or the freshness and beauty of the time and season, and the exhilaration of spirits consequent upon their enjoyment in the society of the young and light-hearted, as was doubtless thought by the chief promoters of such recreations, was the real cause? The result was obtained, and it was left to wiser posterity to refuse "to be contented with it;" to exhibit that partial, and, considered with reference to itself only, that most unfortunate advance in philosophy, which too often pulls down without building up, and which is so very busy in the matter of human improvement, that it has not a moment to spare for human happiness. A glimpse of better things is, however, we hope, dawning; and as it has been said, in connection with literature, that no great work remains long neglected, let us hope that the statement will prove at least partially true with that greatest of practical poems - an old May-day.

The eve of May-day in London during the reign of Henry VIII. presented an animated scene. The citizens of all classes then met together in every parish, and sometimes two or three parishes were joined in the celebration. They then divided into companies, and repaired to the neighbouring woods and groves, some to Highgate or Hampstead, some to Greenwich, some to Shooter's Hill. There the night was spent in cutting down green boughs and branches, in preparing the May-pole, and in a variety of sports and pastimes. In the earlier part of his reign the King himself made a point of joining in these " Mayings," and with as keen a relish as any of his subjects. The picturesque old chronicler, Hall, seems to have taken a particular pleasure in recording all those occasions which exhibited the more genial part of the royal disposition. In the second year of the reign he writes, "The King and the Queen, accompanied with many lords and ladies, rode to the high ground of Shooter's Hill to take the open air, and as they passed by the way they espied a company of tall yeomen, clothed all in green, with green hoods and bows and arrows, to the number of two hundred. Then one of them, which called himself Robin Hood, came to the King, desiring him to see his men shoot, and the King was content. Then he whistled, and all the two hundred archers shot and loosed at once; and then he whistled again, and they likewise shot again; their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the noise was strange and great, and much pleased the King, the Queen, and all the company. All these archers were of the King's guard, and had thus appareled themselves to make solace to the King. Then Robin Hood desired the King and Queen to come into the green wood, and to see how the outlaws live. The King demanded of the Queen and her ladies if they durst adventure to go into the wood with so many outlaws. Then the Queen said, if it pleased him she was content. Then the horns blew till they came to the wood under Shooter's Hill, and there was an arbour made with boughs, with a hall, and a great chamber and an inner chamber, very well made, and covered with flowers and sweet herbs, which the King much praised. Then said Robin Hood, Sir, outlaws' breakfast is venison, and therefore you must be content with such fare as we use. Then the King departed and his company, and Robin Hood and his men them conducted; and as they were returning there met with them two ladies in a rich

chariot drawn with five horses, and every horse had his name on his head, and on every horse sat a lady with her name written. On the first courser, called Cawde, sate Humidite, or Humide; on the second courser, called Memeon, rode Lady Vert; on the third, called Pheaton, sate Lady Vegetave; on the fourth, called Rimphon, sate Lady Pleasance; on the fifth, called Lampace, sate Sweet Odour; and in the chair sate the Lady May, accompanied with Lady Flora, richly appareled; and they saluted the King with diverse goodly songs, and so brought him to Greenwich."*

The crowds of people who had witnessed this spectacle, " to their great solace and comfort," now returned to their own shares in the important business of the day. Let us follow one of these companies. First, they adorned the May-pole with flowers and foliage from one end to the other, the pole itself being previously painted with the most brilliantly variegated colours. Forty yoke of oxen were now attached to it, this May-pole being of unusual length; and each ox having a sweet nosegay of flowers tied to the tips of his horns. Men, women, and children, all dressed in their gayest habiliments, and laden with green boughs, completed

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the procession, which now set forth towards the place where the pole was to be elevated. As they passed through the streets of London, they found

"Each street a park,

Made green, and trimm'd with trees;"

* Hall's Chronicle, p. 582.

the church porches decorated

"With hawthorn-buds, and sweet eglantine,
And garlands of roses :"

they heard music sounding from every quarter, and here and there they beheld in their way some May-pole, preserved from the last year, already elevated, and a wide circle of beaming faces dancing round it. They looked, and hurried on to the place of their destination. The church of St. Andrew the Apostle was called St. Andrew Undershaft, from the circumstance that from time immemorial a Maypole or shaft had been set up there which towered considerably above it. Long streamers or flags were now attached to the pole, which was then finally reared to its proper position amidst the lusty cheers of the multitudes gathered round. Summer-halls, bowers, and arbours were now formed near it; the Lord and Lady of the May were chosen, and decorated with scarfs, ribbons, and other braveries; and then the dances, feastings, and merriment of the day fairly began. When "envious night" approached, and the bonfires were about to be lighted, the Lady of the May, with her attendant female satellites, withdrew; not, however, till she had called for "the merry youngsters, one by one," and given

"To this, a garland interwove with roses;

To that, a carved hook, or well-wrought scrip;
Gracing another with her cherry lip."*

This was probably the last of the many splendid scenes which Cornhill witnessed in connection with its famous May-pole, for the next May-day was that emphatically branded as "Evil May-day," from the nature of the occurrence which signalised it. About this time it appears" a great heart-burning and malicious grudge grew amongst the Englishmen of the City of London against strangers; and namely, the artificers found themselves much aggrieved because such number of strangers were permitted to resort hither with their wares, and to exercise handicrafts, to the great hinderance and impoverishing of the King's liege people." These feelings were fostered by one John Lincoln, a broker, and Dr. Bell, a canon, who openly preached against the strangers. The latter were consequently insulted, and some of them beaten in the streets; but upon their seeking the protection of the Lord Mayor, several of the most malignant of their assailants were sent to prison. "Then suddenly," says Stow, rose a secret rumour, and no man could tell how it began, that, on May-day next following, the City would slay all the aliens; insomuch that divers strangers fled out of the City." The rumour reached the ears of the King's council on May-day eve, and the attention of the Mayor and his brethren being immediately called to the circumstance, an assembly was held at the earliest possible hour to devise such measures of precaution as might appear necessary. The famous Sir Thomas More took an active part in these proceedings; which resulted in an order, delivered by each alderman personally to his ward, that no man after nine should stir out of the house, but keep his doors shut and his servants within until nine o'clock in the morning. Probably these precautions would have sufficed, but for the want of prudence in one of the aldermen, who, returning from his ward just after the proclamation had been made, and finding two young men playing at

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