CHAPTER IV

_APRIL_

A spring day--The Abbey fool--An old country rhyme--The old custom of All Fools' Day revived--Old Adam full of splendour--A visit to the Abbey pool--Clematises "opened out" to the light--The borders full of spring flowers--Rose pruning--How roses should be pruned differently--Something about bees--The tool-house--Bright colours for the beehives--Scotch bees and their favourite colour--The old Shropshire bee--Bess and I attend the removal of the bees--Masks and bee-veils worn by gardeners--Burbidge whispers the charm--Bee folklore--Bess and I help to paint the bee-houses--The bees are freed--Thady Malone--His message--Mrs. Harley has sent for me--I go off to Homer--The last scene--A death of brilliant hope and happiness--Mouse and I return--The cuckoo--The joy of life, and the beauty of spring--The Sunday before Easter, or Palm Sunday--The old rite of the blessing of the boughs--All the young people in church wear the golden willow--The walk in the churchyard--After luncheon I read extracts from Sir Thomas Botelar's "Church Registers"--Wenlock history in Tudor times--A word about Constance's quilt--The revival of the May dance at Wenlock--A village _fête_--Bess to be May Queen--Marsh marigold the special flower--Bess's delight at the thought of the _fête_--Burbidge gives his consent--Virtuous indignation of old Hester his wife--Easter Sunday--The Sacrament in the old church--In the afternoon we visit Thady, who is down with a bad leg--Bess takes him an Easter Egg--The mead of daffodils--"A bunch of daffs" for luck--How Burbidge had planted them--Our visit to old Timothy Theobalds--His tales of the old ways--Bull-baiting--Rejoicings at Loppington--The Madeley bull-baitings--Courage of the Vicar of Madeley and his eloquence--Stories of old May Day--Stories and old accounts locally--Puritan dislike of the festival--A beautiful spring morning--The summer flowers growing in strength--Beauty of the cloister-garth--Division of the violet roots--The great daffodils and their splendour--The gooseberry and currant cages--Burbidge's dislike to bullfinches--The double primroses, their beauty and charm--Preparations for the May dance--All the old servants are occupied in making the May dance a success--A talk with Thady through the window--A day in the woods--Birds' nests--Luncheon under the greenwood tree--Fairy-stories--We wander home--Quotations about sleep--The delights of a long day in the woods 131