“May 1052 had good weather. Few young men and women slept through the morning of the first day of this month: long before sunrise they rushed into the meadows and forests to pick flowers and chop birch trees. At that time, near the village of Shering and beyond the island of Thorney (on which the Palace of Westminster was just being built) there were many lush meadows, and on the sides of the great Kentish road, above the ditches that cut through this area in all directions, the dense forests rustled, which on that day resounded sounds of horns and flutes, laughter, songs and the crackling of young birch trees falling under the blows of an ax. How many lovely faces leaned down this morning to the fresh green grass to wash themselves with the May dew. Having loaded the carts with their spoils and decorated the horns of oxen harnessed instead of horses with flower garlands, the huge procession headed back to the city...”