Let Her Path be Spread with Roses White and with Roses Red

Ah, May.  A jolly fine month in my opinion.  Still Spring-like and cool, but getting warmer and full of optimism and two bank holidays (well not this year exactly, but you know what I mean).  The things I could talk about!  Well, I could talk about this…

May Morning on Magdalen Tower (1888-90) William Holman Hunt

However, it creeps me out.  It’s like a sing-a-long in the Village of the Damned.  Also, I always embarrass myself and never remember if it’s ‘Magdalen’ or ‘Maudlin’ (it’s probably the latter as posh people pronounce words so they don’t have to move their lips and show their bad teeth.  Or they all secretly want to be ventriloquists.)

I could also talk about this…

‘I am to be the Queen of May! Oops, I’m dead…’ Yes, well, for heavens sake, I always talk about women carelessly dying all over the place.  So, what could I talk about?  As my Granny used to say, ‘If in doubt, look inside your blouse…’

Me, with the Burne-Jones May Cross

Close-up of my cross

Ah, my beloved May Cross.  This is obviously a reproduction, and I bought it many moons ago, when Past Times was good.  It’s a copy of a cross designed by Burne-Jones for Whitelands College May Celebration.  Founded in 1840 by the High Anglican National Authority, Whitelands College was a teacher training college for the Society’s schools.  In 1881, under the guidence of John Ruskin, they started choosing a ‘May Queen’, the most ‘likeable and loveable’ of the students as voted for by her peers.

That Queen would be awarded the May Day Cross.  The first one was designed by Ruskin’s cousin’s husband, Arthur Severn, and was decorated with hawthorn blossom.  It is believed that the inspiration for this ceremony was the death of Rose La Touche in 1875.

May Cross from 1884 by Arthur Severn

When Rose died, Ruskin was devastated.  Next to the date of her death in his diary he drew hawthorn leaves, and for some reason the plant was the one he chose for the cross.  It might have been because of the echo of his lost love's name in the plant (rosaceae) or that a medieval meaning of the plant was death that linked it to Rose La Touche.  However, I think it was probably for its happier connotations, those of hope and marriage, that it was chosen as the subject of the first crosses.

I think the cross on the far left is by Burne-Jones as it is described as being in its original London & Ryder box on The British Museum website.  Ruskin asked Burne-Jones to design a cross in the mid-1880s and after a great deal of trouble and more than fifty drawings, he designed a cross for the ceremony.  I’m guessing mine is based on one of the fifty…

May cross from 1893 by Arthur Severn

You can see examples of the crosses in the British Museum, where not only the Whitelands College ones are displayed, but also one from the High School for Girls in Cork, run by a former governess at Whitelands.  In 1885, she started the same tradition at her new school, presenting a June Cross, with a pattern of wild roses (an example may be the middle of the three crosses above), also designed by Arthur Severn.

So, what’s it all about then?  The girls who received these crosses might not have been the brightest in the school, it’s not a reward for academic achievement or sporting prowess (we are young ladies after all!).  These crosses reward the most loveable girl, as voted for by the other pupils, which actually is quite a lovely thought and is an answer to those people who say ‘There are no prizes for being nice…’  Thinking about it in terms of the symbolism, it is definitely pointing the way to happy wife-dom, how being a pleasant girl will make you a good wife (don’t tell poor Mr Walker). 

I think the ceremony is still enacted, but now the college is co-ed, there can be a King of May too, which is a charming thought.  Forever more now, I shall think of May as the month of wearing my cross and just being nice to everyone.  Even John Ruskin.

Oh, it might be a long month…