With us the nosegay yet retains its station as a decoration to our
Sunday beaux; but at our spring clubs and associations it becomes an
essential, indispensable appointment, a little of the spirit of rivalry
seeming to animate our youths in the choice and magnitude of this
adornment. The superb spike of a Brompton, or ten-weeks’-stock long
cherished in some sheltered corner for the occasion, surrounded by all
the gayety the garden can afford, till it presents a very bush of
flowers, forms the appendage of their bosoms, and, with the gay knots in
their hats, their best garments, and the sprightly hilarity of their
looks, constitutes a pleasing village scene, and gives an hour of
unencumbered felicity to common man and rural life, not yet disturbed by
refinement and taste.