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that the bride's stockings were taken by the young men, and the bridegroom's by the girls; each of whom, sitting at the foot of the bed, threw the stockings over their own heads, endeavouring to make them fall upon those of the bride, or of her spouse. If the bridegroom's stockings, thrown by the girls, fell upon the bridegroom's head, it was a sign of their own speedy marriage; and a similar prognostic was derived from the falling of the bride's stockings, as thrown by the young men.

In the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage a slightly different version of the practice is given: "One of the young Ladies, instead of throwing the Stocking at the Bride, flings it full in the Bason" (which held the sack posset) "and then it's time to take the Posset away; which done, they last kiss round and so depart."

So also in Hymen (1760) we read: "The Men take the Bride's Stockings, and the Women those of the Bridegroom: they then seat themselves at the bed's feet and throw the Stockings over their heads, and whenever any one hits the owner of them, it is looked upon as an Omen that the person will be married in a short time; and though this Ceremony is looked upon as mere play and foolery, new Marriages are often occasioned by such accidents. Meantime the Posset is got ready and given to the married Couple. When they awake in the morning a Sack-Posset is also given them."

Reference to this ceremony has not been omitted in The Collier's Wedding

"The Stockings thrown, the Company gone,

And Tom and Jenny both alone."

In A Sing-Song on Clarinda's Wedding, in Fletcher's Translations and Poems (1656), is the following account of this ceremony

"This clutter ore, Clarinda lay
Half-bedded, like the peeping Day

Behind Olimpus' Cap;

Whiles at her head each twitt'ring Girle
The fatal Stocking quick did whirle

To know the lucky hap."

And in Folly in Print (1667), in the description of a wedding we read

"But still the Stockings are to throw ;

Some threw too high, and some too low,
There's none could hit the mark," &c.

In the Progress of Matrimony (1733) is another narration

"Then come all the younger Folk in,

With Ceremony throw the Stocking;
Backward, o'er head, in turn they toss'd it.

Till in Sack-posset they had lost it.
Th' intent of flinging thus the Hose,
Is to hit him or her o' th' Nose:

Who hits the mark, thus, o'er left shoulder,
Must married be, ere twelve months older.
Deucalion thus, and Pyrrha threw

Behind them stones, whence Mankind grew!"

Again, in a poem entitled the Country Wedding, in the Gentleman's Magazine for March 1735

"Bid the Lasses and Lads to the merry brown bowl,
While Rashers of Bacon shall smoke on the coal:
Then Roger and Bridget, and Robin and Nan,

Hit 'em each on the Nose, with the Hose if you can."

In the British Apollo (1708) we have explanation of the practice

"Q. Apollo say, whence 'tis I pray,

The antient Custom came,

Stockings to throw, (I'm sure you know)
At Bridegroom and his Dame.

A. When Britons bold, bedded of old,
Sandals were backward thrown;

The pair to tell, that, ill or well,
The act was all their own."

Allan Ramsay also introduces this custom in his poems (1721)—

"The Bride was now laid in her Bed,

Her left leg Ho was flung;

And Geordy Gib was fidgen glad,
Because it hit Jean Gun."

In the British Apollo for 1711 we have the following question: "Why is the Custom observed for the Bride to be placed in Bed next the left hand of her Husband, seeing it is a general use in England for Men to give their Wives the right hand when they walk together?" The answer rendered is: "Because it looks more modest for a Lady to accept the honour her Husband does her as an act of generosity at his hands, than to take it as her right, since the Bride goes to bed first."

In the Christen State of Matrimony (1543) it is said: "As for Supper, loke how much shameles and dronken the evenynge is more then the mornynge, so much the more vyce, excesse, and mysnourtoure is used at the Supper. After Supper must they begynne to pype and daunce agayne of the new. And though the yonge personnes. beyng wery of the bablynge noyse and inconvenience, come once towarde theyr rest, yet canne they have no quietnes: for a man shall fynde unmannerly and restles people that wyll first go to theyr chambre dore, and there syng vicious and naughty Ballades, that the Dyvell maye have his whole tryumphe nowe to the uttermost."

It appears to have been a waggish custom at weddings to hang a bell under the party's bed. See Fletcher's Night Walker, act i. sc. I.

SACK-POSSET.

In the evening of the wedding-day, immediately before retirement of the company, sack-posset was eaten, the bride and bridegroom invariably tasting it first; and to this was given the name of "Benediction Posset."

The custom of eating a posset at bedtime seems to have been general among our ancestors. The Tobacconist, in the Wandering Jew telling Fortunes to English Men (1640), says: "And at my going to bed, this is my Posset."*

Herrick has not overlooked it in his Hesperides

"What short sweet Prayers shall be said;

And how the Posset shall be made
With Cream of Lilies (not of Kine)
And Maidens-blush for spiced Wine."

Nor is it omitted in the Collier's Wedding

"Now some prepare t' undress the Bride,
While others tame the Posset's pride.'

It is mentioned, too, among the bridal rites of John Newchombe, where we are told "the Sack-Posset must be eaten ;" and in the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage it is called "an antient Custom of the English Matrons, who believe that Sack will make a Man lusty, and Sugar will make him kind."

Among the Anglo-Saxons, says Strutt in his Manners and Customs, the bride at night was placed in the marriage-bed by the women attendants, and the bridegroom similarly conducted thither by the men, when the company retired after the couple had joined all present in drinking the marriage health.

Accordingly, in the old song of Arthur of Bradley, we read—

"And then they did foot it, and toss it,

Till the Cook had brought up the Posset,
The Bride-pye was brought forth,

A thing of mickle worth,

And so all, at the Bed-side,

Took leave of Arthur and his Bride."

Misson describes it as "a kind of Cawdle; a potion made up of Milk, Wine, Yolks of Eggs, Sugar, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, &c. ;" and he adds: "They never fail to bring them another Sack-Posset next morning."

He further writes: "The Bride-Maids carry the Bride into the Bed-chamber, where they undress her, and lay her in the Bed. They must throw away and lose all the Pins. Woe be to the Bride if a single one is left about her; nothing will go right. Woe also to the Bride-Maids if they keep one of them, for they will not be married before Whitsontide;" or, as Hymen fixes the date, "till the Easter following at soonest."

* Skinner derives the word from the French poser, residere, to settle; because, when the milk breaks, the cheesy parts, being heavier, subside.

The designation of "Benediction Posset" is confirmed by Smollett in Humphrey Clinker; and it is adverted to by Herrick

"If needs we must for Ceremonies sake
Blesse a Sacke-Posset: luck go with it, take
The night charm quickly: you have spells
And magicks for to end.'

In ancient times no newly-married couple could retire until the bridal bed had been blessed. In a manuscript entitled Historical Passages concerning the Clergy in the Papal Times, cited in the History of Shrewsbury (1779), it is stated that "the Pride of the Clergy and the Bigotry of the Laity were such that new married Couples were made to wait till Midnight after the Marriage Day, before they would pronounce a Benediction, unless handsomely paid for it; and they durst not undress without it, on pain of excommunication."

The Romish Rituals give the form of blessing the nuptial bed From Articles ordained by King Henry VII. for the regulation of his Household, published by the Society of Antiquaries, we learn that this ceremony was observed at the marriage of a princess: "All Men at her comming in to be voided, except Woemen, till she be brought to her Bedd: and the Man, both he sitting in his Bedd, in his Shirte, with a Gowne cast about him. Then the Bishoppe with the Chaplaines to come in and blesse the Bedd: then every Man to avoide without any Drinke, save the twoe Estates, if they liste priviely."

A singular instance of tantalising, however incredible it may seem, was most certainly practised by our ancestors on this festive occasion, to wit, sewing up the bride in one of the sheets. Herrick's testimony, in the Nuptial Song on Sir Clipesby Crew and his Lady expressly establishes the fact of this being, in those days, a prevalent mode

"But, since it must be done, dispatch and sowe
Up in a Sheet your Bride, and what if so!"

So, too, in the account of the marriage ceremonial of Sir Philip Herbert and the Lady Susan, performed at Whitehall in the time of James I., before cited, it is particularised: “At night there was sewing into the Sheet."

MORNING AFTER THE MARRIAGE.

Strutt is our authority for the statement that on the morning succeeding the marriage the whole company came into the chamber of the newly-wedded couple, before they rose, to hear the husband declare the morning's gift, when his relations became sureties to the wife's relations for the performances of such promises as were made by the husband. This was the origin of pin-money, and the property so acquired became the separate and exclusive property of the wife.

Owen's Welsh Dictionary, under the word CowYLL, explains it as

signifying primarily a garment or cloak with a veil, presented by the husband to his bride on the morning after marriage; and the meaning is extended to the settlement he has made on her of goods and chattels adequate to her rank. Coming down to more modern times, a custom similar to this prevails in Prussia, where the husband may (in the case of discovering her to be a virgin, he must) present to his bride the morgengabe or gift on the morning after marriage, even though she should be a widow.

The practice of wakening a couple early in the morning after the marriage with a concert of music is of ancient date.

In the Letter from Sir Dudley Carleton to Mr Winwood, describing the nuptials of the Lady Susan with Sir Philip Herbert, it is stated that "they were lodged in the Council Chamber, where the King gave them a Reveille Matin before they were up ;" and of this salutation, as practised on occasion of the marriages of respectable merchants of London in his time, Hogarth has left us a curious representation in one of his prints of the Idle and Industrious Apprentice.

To the same effect we read in the Comforts of Wooing: "Next morning, come the Fidlers and scrape him a wicked Reveillez. The Drums rattle, the Shaumes tote, the Trumpets sound tan ta ra ra ra, and the whole Street_rings with the benedictions and good wishes of Fidlers, Drummers, Pipers, and Trumpetters. You may safely say now the Wedding's Proclaimed." And Misson's reference to the same topic runs: "If the Drums and Fiddles have notice of it, they will be sure to be with them by Day-break, making a horrible racket, till they have got the pence."

Gay's Trivia censures the use of the drum in this concert-→

"Here Rows of Drummers stand in martial file,
And with their vellom thunder shake the pile,

To greet the new-made Bride. Are sounds like these
The proper prelude to a state of Peace ?"

Under the head of Betrothing Customs the Scotch institution of creeling on the second day after marriage has already been adverted to. Allan Ramsay, however (1721), refers to it as in vogue

* The Mercheta Mulierum has been discredited by an eminent antiquary. It was said that Eugenius III., King of Scotland, did wickedly ordain that the lord or master should have the first night's lodging with every woman married to his tenant or bondman; which ordinance was afterwards abrogated by King Malcolm III., who ordained that the bridegroom should have the sole use of his own wife, and therefore should pay to the lord a piece of money called marca. One cannot help observing on the above, that they must have been bondmen, or (in the ancient sense of the word) villains indeed, who could have submitted to so singular a species of despotism.

We found the subsequent clause in a curious MS. in the Cotton Library, Vitell. E. 5, entitled "Excerpta ex quodam antiquo Registro Prioris de Tynemouth, remanente apud Comitem Northumbria de Baroniis et Feodis

Rentale de Tynemuth, factum A.D. 1378.

"Omnes Tenentes de Tynemouth, cum contigerit, solvent Layrewite Filiabus vel Ancillis suis et etiam Merchet pro filiabus suis maritandis.”

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