May 1st. Up, it being a fine day, and after doing a little business in
my chamber I left my wife to go abroad with W. Hewer and his mother in a
Hackney coach incognito to the Park, while I abroad to the Excise Office
first, and there met the Cofferer and Sir Stephen Fox about our money
matters there, wherein we agreed, and so to discourse of my Lord
Treasurer, who is a little better than he was of the stone, having
rested a little this night. I there did acquaint them of my knowledge of
that disease, which I believe will be told my Lord Treasurer. Thence to
Westminster; in the way meeting many milk-maids with their garlands upon
their pails, dancing with a fiddler before them;
[On the 1st of May milkmaids used to borrow silver cups, tankards,
&c., to hang them round their milkpails, with the addition of
flowers and ribbons, which they carried upon their heads,
accompanied by a bagpipe or fiddle, and went from door to door,
dancing before the houses of their customers, in order to obtain a
small gratuity from each of them.
“In London thirty years ago,
When pretty milkmaids went about,
It was a goodly sight to see
Their May-day pageant all drawn out.
“Such scenes and sounds once blest my eyes
And charm’d my ears; but all have vanish’d,
On May-day now no garlands go,
For milkmaids and their dance are banish’d.”