I love the Hawthorn blossoms but I’ve never liked the scent. I found the reason why in this extract found on Google below:
Across Britain there was
the belief that bringing hawthorn blossom into the house would lead to illness and death.
Medieval folk asserted that the smell of hawthorn blossom was just like the smell of the Great Plague in London. Botanists later discovered the reason for this. The chemical trimethylamine present in hawthorn blossom is also formed in decaying animal tissue. So it is hardly surprising that hawthorn blossom was so unwelcome in the house.
Ian