a-maying

Of the girls who went "a-maying," Stubbs in his 1585 Anatomie of Abuses says, "scarcely a thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled."

Bel's Fire and Little Green Men Joanna Waugh 2009

Of the girls who went "a-maying," Stubbs in his 1585 Anatomie of Abuses says, "scarcely a thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled."

Archive 2009-05-01 Joanna Waugh 2009

“In and out and round about, a-maying, a-maying ....”

Between the Acts 2004

Accordingly we went a-maying, following the lure of dancing winds to a certain westward sloping hill lying under the spirit-like blue of spring skies, feathered over with lisping young pines and firs, which cupped little hollows and corners where the sunshine got in and never got out again, but stayed there and grew mellow, coaxing dear things to bloom long before they would dream of waking up elsewhere.

The Golden Road 1908

Upon the morn they took their horses with the queen, and rode a-maying in woods and meadows, as it pleased them.

The Madness of May Meredith Nicholson 1906

In May – nay, it was on May-day, I remember, for we were down in the mill-meadows with Louise, and her little ones, going a-maying – there came in the American mail.

John Halifax, Gentleman 1897

She could understand that; and Villon's famous verses, "Ou sont les neiges d'antan?" were as familiar to her as Herrick's "Come, my Corinna, let us go a-maying."

Innocent : her fancy and his fact Marie Corelli 1889

It befell one spring, in the month of May, that Queen Guenevere bethought herself that she would like to go a-maying in the woods and fields that lay round the City of Westminster on both sides of the river.

The Book of Romance Andrew Lang 1878

Here, the surface of things is certainly humdrum, the streets dingy, the green places, where the child goes a-maying, tame enough.

Appreciations, with an Essay on Style Walter Pater 1866

How the two queens and all their court had gone a-maying on Shooter's

The Armourer's Prentices Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862