The only traces of the old custom of going a-Maying were the garlands
of the milk-maids and the Jack-in-the-green of the sweeps. The garland
(so called) was made of silver plate, borrowed for the day, and
fastened upon a sort of pyramid. Accompanying this droll garland were
the maids themselves in gay dress, with ribbons and flowers, and
attended by musicians who played for them to dance in the street.
Sometimes a cow was dressed in festive array, with bouquets and ribbons
on her horns, neck and tail, and over her back a net, stuck full of
flowers. Thus highly ornamented, the meek creature was led through the
streets.
The sweeps brought out the Jack-in-the-green, which was a tall cone
made of green boughs, decorated with flowers, gay streamers and a
flag, and carried by a man inside. Each of these structures was
followed by a band of sweeps who assumed certain characters, the
fashion of which had been handed down from the palmy times of May-day.
There were always a lord and lady who wore ridiculous imitations of
fashionable dress, and made ludicrous attempts to imitate elegant
manners. Mad Moll and her husband were another pair who flourished in
tawdry, gay-colored rags, and tatters, he brandishing a sweep's broom
and she a ladle.
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