Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/190

 182 like every other hawthorn-bush. During the night of the 24th to 25th December, in the year 1753, New S., a large crowd had gathered with torches, candles, and lanthorns around the wonderful bush, anxious to behold the development of the white blossoms. Midnight struck, but the bush remained bleak and dead: no sign of life could be detected. After waiting in vain till dawn, the people dispersed, but the excitement still continued.

There was no doubting possible: the new Christmas Day was not the right one. The authorities had already decided to exterminate the bush, when lo and behold, on the 5th of January, the old Christmas Day, it stood in full bloom.

This of course heightened popular feeling, and the clergy, seeing that stricter measures would only make matters worse, effected a compromise, and so both the old and the new Christmas Day were celebrated alike.

At what date the hawthorn-bush at Quainton became aware of its chronological error, and changed its day of miraculous blossoming to suit the Gregorian calendar, is not known.