On a spacious lawn, bounded on every side by a profusion of the most
odoriferous flowering shrubs, a joyous band of villagers were assembled;
the young men dressed in green; youth, health, and pleasure in their
air, led up their artless charmers, in straw hats adorned with the
spoils of Flora, to the rustic sound of the tabor and pipe. Round the
lawn, at equal intervals, were raised temporary arbours of branches of
trees, in which refreshments were prepared for the dancers; and between
the arbours, seats of moss for their parents, shaded from the sun by
green awnings, on poles, round which were twined wreaths of flowers,
breathing the sweets of the spring. The surprise, the gaiety of the
scene, the flow of general joy, the sight of so many happy people, the
countenances of the enraptured parents, who seem to live anew again, the
sprightly season of youth in their children, with the benevolent looks
of the noble bestowers of the feast, filled my eyes with tears, and my
swelling heart with a sensation of pure, yet lively transport, to which
the joys of the courtly belles are mean.
* * * * *