Rosemary was always born in the hands by the family and friends. It was also put into the cool tankard, or other nice drinks, to stir it with. Our army, "Before we divide let us dip our rosemaries In one bowl of sack, to the brave girl Another wedding drink was Hippocras. Rings were often given away to friends, relations, and acquaintances, oftentimes to a very considerable amount. The following is a recipe to make a match: "To make a good match you have brimstone and wood, In a work called "Cupid's Cookery Book," there are some very curious receipts for marriages, which, being upon so delicate a subject, the reader will, I hope, excuse me from interfering, to use a sporting phrase," that is a manor on which I dare not poach." "On the first fall of the moon, after New Year's day, young people would stand across a stile, and sing out the following lines.-Aubrey. "All hail to thee, Moon. All hail to thee, I prithee good moon reveal unto me, This night who my husband (or wife) shall be." A girl was generally brought into life at fourteen or fifteen, and introduced into society, to begin the serious business of life, which meant nothing more than to show off all those attractions alluded to by the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montague; (vol. i. p. 173;) and which was intended to get her a good marriage. These were the days of runaway_marriages, for they had nothing to do but to go to the Fleet Prison, where they would find some clergyman under lock and key for having overstepped his living allowance, where, for a fee, he would tie the knot, although contrary to the canon of his church. From a "History of the Fleet Marriages," by John S. Brown, 1834; who has added many additional hundred names of eminent or respectable persons, married at this prison, I select the following: the Duke of Manchester, Lord Banff, Lady Elizabeth Berkley, Lady Mary Bennett, and Sir John Leigh, whose marriage occasioned many legal proceedings, which terminated in the house of lords. When, in the course of events, marriage became prominently necessary, the apology might be published in her own defence, in the shape of the following, or some such manifesto. From the "Postboy," 27th May, 1712. "Whereas, for several reasons, the marriage of Mrs.- - to Captain- was kept private for sometime, which has occasioned some insolent people to censure her virtue. It is thought proper to give this public notice, that she was married to the said captain on the -last- -at- Church by license, and before wit 18th of nesses. At this period came in a new feature; the newspapers of the day abound with advertisements of runaway wives, warning all shop-keepers against trusting them! In 1613, the Countess of Essex sued for a divorce, and a commission was appointed. This vicious woman was the daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, and was married, at thirteen years of age, to the Earl of Essex, who was only one year older; they did not at first live together, the youthful husband went his travels on the continent. At the end of four years, they then lived together as man and wife; but the Earl found his wife, although the most fascinating female in the English court, cold, contemptuous, and altogether averse to him. p. 210. The divorce was granted, and she then married the Earl of Somerset. She was afterward tried, with Somerset, Mrs. Turner, and others, for the murder of Sir Thomas Overberry, she confessed her guilt, but was ultimately pardoned by the King. The history of this atrocious woman, proves to the very letter, the truth of the following couplet: "Earth hath no rage, like love to hatred turned, Nor h--l a fury like a woman scorned." OrwAY. All the Kings from Charles I., untill George III. kept mistresses openly. The Gretna-green marriages are according to the laws of Scotland, but according to the regulations of the Church of England. These marriages commenced about 1750 or 60. The first officiator's name was Scott. The following excellent advice on widows marrying, is by George Tooke, a writer of the middle of the seventeenth century; they are applicable to all periods-and are of such rarity, that I fancy few of my readers have ever seen them, and some have, perhaps, hardly heard the name of the author. Besides, it is gratifying a little whim of my own, for which I hope I may be excused, to give the opinions of these reigns, in their usual quaint versification, "For rhyme the rudder is of verses, With which like ships, they steer their courses." HUDIBRAS. It gives the reader a fuller view. THE WIDOW'S WARNING. "Be wise and take no churlish clown Whose neatly timbered limbs are lined This is the wight; and haste thee, Jane, 27 RIGHTS OF THE QUEEN.-The Queen Consort, (says Blackstone,) by virtue of her marriage, has many prerogatives above other women. The Queen may purchase and convey lands, grant leases and copyholds, and do other acts of ownership, without the concurrence of the King. She is also capable of taking a grant from the King, which no other wife is from her husband. In law she is considered as a femme sole, as a single, not as a married, woman—and the reason of this, according to Coke, is, that the King, "whose continual care and study is for the public good, may not be troubled and disquieted on account of his wife's domestic affairs." The Queen has also many exemptions and minute prerogatives. She pays no tolls nor direct tax, nor is she liable to any amercement in any Court; she has also some pecuniary advantages, which form her a direct revenue: she is entitled to an ancient perquisite called Queen-gold or Aurum Reginæ, arising from fines to the King, from royal grants, or other matters of royal favour conferred by the King, from licences, pardons, &c. 28 and it becomes an actual debt to the Queen's Majesty by the mere recording the fine. Blackstone adds, that "these matters of al grace and favour, out of which the Aurum Regina arose, were frequently obtained from the crown, by the powerful intercession of the Queen!" The learned judge, then mentions a curious anecdote respecting the Aurum Regina in the reign of Charles I. a time (says he) fertile in expedients for raising money. "The King, on the petition of his Queen, Henrietta Maria, issued out his writ for levying it; but afterward purchased it of his Consort, at the price of ten thousand pounds." ELEGANCIES. "Our modern age is not so distinguished for improvement as is generally thought."-GOETHE. ALTHOUGH Our ancestors, in their sports and pastimes, exhibited a noisy, rough joviality, by no means inviting our imitation; yet in their embellishments they very generally displayed a delicate and expressive elegance which we have not surpassed. In their jewellery, of which they were so fond, in this their taste was often displayed acrosstically; for instance, a ring, or any other brilliant toy set with a ruby, an emerald, a garnet, an amethyst, another ruby, and a diamond, the initial letters of these gems would form the word REGARD; and was considered a tasteful, sentimental, expressive present. From the humidity of the climate, they seldom indulged in fountains, but where nature favoured, art joined its powers, and furnished waterfalls* in their walks, parterres, and pleasure grounds; and where there was a spring, they would form it into some ornamental object, furnish it with an iron drinking cup, Rocky Linn, Scotland, Wother-Cott, England, Dank Cave, do 80 75 25 The above are some of the principal waterfalls in Great Britain. Thornton Force, do do and give it a motto, of which the following is one, LABITER ET LABIETER, The stream flows, and will flow. The wells were occasionally ornamented with flowers. Spencer, in his “Fairie Queen,” thus speaks of a fountain : "And in the midst of all a fountain stood, Of richest substance that on earth might bee, Through every channel running one might see." And Drayton, a later poet, in his "Quest of Cynthia," writes: "At length I, on a fountain light, The banks with daffodilics dight, And grass, sieve-like, was matted." And thus wrote Dyer, a still later poet: Mix'd with green of burnet, mint, and thyme, In many instances, (as at Tissington, in Derbyshire,) there were annual festivals, and then the wells were fresh decorated. The above lines apply to such times as these. At the entrance to the delightful grounds of the Leasowes, in Warwickshire, there is the following inscription: "Would you, then, taste the tranquil scene? Be sure your bosom be serene; The oldest known letter with sealing wax is dated London, August 3d, 1554. The oldest one with a wafer is dated 1624. The colours of the sealing wax were expressive of much * Innumerable were the instances of their sculpturing mottoes, conveying sententious instructive sentences; forcibly were they impressed with the truth conveyed by St. Luke, ch. xiv. v. 34, "The light of the body is the eye." The decline of sculpturing sentences may, perhaps, be owing to a remark of Lord Chesterfield, who writes, "A man of fashion never has recourse to proverbs and vulgar aphorisms;" but many men of more acknowledged worth than he, felt no shame in using quaint and pithy maxims. In former days, our wiser forefathers had proverbs stamped on their knife blades, and the borders of their pewter plates; indeed, according to an old dramatist, they "conned them out of goldsmiths' rings." |