The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-09-05
The English Daisy.

l picked my first crimson-tipped dali
sizes in or near the little black-and-w
village of Whitnash, a village nesting
in the very heart of green England,
and concerning which Hawthorne
writes most delightfully."- in "Our Old
Home"
Not far from Whitnash is deep rail-
way cut, the sloping banks of which are
smooth and green as well-kept lawn.
1t was there | esped them on an April
day, as | leaned over the railing of the
bridge spanning the cut. They starred
the green turf in consultations.
Ever since the arrival of the thrushes
and black-birds l had been seeking
them, and now they had come, as Wild
flowers do, not singly, but by the
myriad, as though by some electric I'M
derground communication they had
fixed upon the exact day and hour in
which to join en- muSse the train of the
advancing spring.
The entrance TO this cut is carefully
guarded by high picket-fence. But
with equal care stile has been built
over the fence, so that whoever pleases
can gain access to it.
l brought away a handful of these
daisies and most perfect they were, the
disk having a center of rich golden
brown, grading into bright yellow where
it was joined by the crimson-tipped
rays.
put them in water, and as the night
closed in the petals shut to open again
with the returning sun-the true days
eye.
Whitnash is in Shakspeare's county,
which he had in mind when he wrote
his spring song beginning:
When daisies pied and violets blue
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight"
l was so happy as to find the " cuckoo
bud of yellow hue " the very day after
finding the daisies.
One more quotation from the great
poet must be permitted me, which,
since | have seen the English daisy in
its home, seems to me absolutely per-
feet:
without the bed her other fair hand was
On the green coverlet, whose perfect white
Shone like an April day on the grass"
The daisy is found in heraldry. 1t
was assumed by the good Marguerite of
Valois, she who was the friend of Cal
vim and the grandmother of the French
Henry w., and also by Margaret of
Richmond, the mother of Henry VII.
and foundress of Christ College, Cam
bridge, who bore three daisies on a
green turf, to my thinking one of the
prettiest of badges.
The old stone church at Whitnash
was dedicated to st. Margaret, and in a
stained-glass window of its south porch
/ oh hao ,;,,, ia ha, nd
spray of daisies with crimson rays.
The daisy when springing from a
rich soil sometimes has curious growth
of tiny flowers underneath the main
flower and growing out of the green
bracts. This is called the &" hen-and-
chickens daisy" the big flower answer
ing to the hen and the small ones to
the chickens.
There are ordinarily only two or three
of these tiny chickens" perfect little
daisies, costly nesting under the rays
of the larger one. But sometimes there
is complete ring of them close set.
This curious growth is also called
jackanapes on horseback" though in
| Warwckshire the former name OBJ
| tains.
The word " daisy" was formerly used
in the eastern counties of England as
an adjective meaning excellent, re-
markable-as for instance, "She's a
daisy lass to work." meaning " she's a
good girl to work." or " I'm a daisy
hand for a pudding" meaning 4" l eat
a good deal of pudding"
Here is only another curious example
of the fact that what we call " SLAMS" "
is often only revival of an old phrase.
And the American youngsters " You're
IA daisy!" is simply old provincial En-
glish.-M +. A. Humphrey, IN Vide
AW0ke.