By Lydia O'shea

The Bride's Favours-colours to be Avoided-bride Knives not Unlucky-gloves at Weddings

In Edward Chicken's poem, "The Collier's Wedding," we read of:

"The blithesome, bucksome country maids, With knots of ribands at their heads, And pinners flut'ring in the wind, That fan before and toss behind."

And of the groomsmen on the same occasion:

"Like streamers in the painted sky, At every breast the favours fly." The chief bridesmaid often spent hours in worrying perplexity over her choice of these ribands, until custom decreed the following for the bride's favours: red, peach colour, and orange-tawny; for the knots and streamers, flame colour, straw colour (for plenty), peach colour, grass-green, and milk-white; and perfect yellow (honour and joy) for the garters.

Gold colour was avoided as being too suggestive of avarice, and pale yellow of jealousy; violet was also prohibited; as it was deemed too significant of religious matters to be suitable for wedding festivities. One particularly picturesque wedding occurred at the close of the seventeenth century, when Monsieur de Overkerque was united to a daughter of the ducal house of Ormond. This was the period when "favours" were very fashionable, and it is recorded that actually thousands of the bride's favours - of gold, silver, carnation, and white - were publicly worn all about London for several weeks.

Rosemary for Remembrance

Another and exceedingly dainty form which bride favours occasionally took was a sprig of rosemary tied with silver lace. Rosemary in this instance was chosen because of its signification, " rosemary for remembrance," and therefore it was held as symbolical of steadiness and changelessness.

In a delightful bridal sermon preached by Dr. Roger Hackett (1607), that eminent divine said :

"The rosemary is for married men, the which by name and nature and continued use man challengeth as belonging properly to himself. It helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinal for the head. It also affects the heart. Let this ros-marinus, this flower of men, ensign of your wisdom, love, and loyalty, be carried not only in your hands, but in your hearts."

From this sentiment arose the gallant custom which decreed that each wedding guest, on pledging the bride and bridegroom in the loving-cup, must dip their sprig of rosemary in the wine before drinking.

' Before we divide Our army, let us dip our rosemaries In one rich bowl of sack, to this brave girl, And to the gentleman." Sometimes a bride was led to church by two little pages, their silken sleeves adorned with bride laces and rosemary, and followed by a bevy of pretty girls carrying floral chaplets. If a bride wished to look particularly pretty she wore a sweet little cap of lace upon her head, either with or without a coronet of flowers, and sometimes the lace was enriched by a tracery of gold thread.

Wedding Scarves

Scarves, which are now confined to funerals were in former days distributed at weddings

An Elizabethan couplet, dated 1601, runs:

Take you this skarfe, bind Cupid hande and foote,

So Love must aske you leave before he shoote."

And another couplet of the same date mentions the unusual" bride knives." "Fortune doth give these paire of knives to you

To cut the thred of love if't be not true."

Surely not a very propitious gift for a newly married pair! But probably the idea of ill-luck was not attached to such a gift as it would be at the present time, because in early days a sheathed knife hanging from the girdle was an ordinary part of feminine attire.

"Points" are also mentioned as articles of bridal attire, but it seems a little uncertain what these really were, unless it was another name for point lace; as Ben Jonson wrote:

"We shall all ha' bride laces or points."

The Use Of Gloves At Weddings

The use of the glove at weddings is a very ancient custom. Some authorities refer it to an old custom, which entitled the priest to ask for a pair of red gloves, with three pieces of silver money in them. The gloves were then placed in the bridegroom's right hand. And since his hand was joined to the bride's, the gloves became transferred to the bride's right hand, and therefore formed her husband's first gift to her. As an expansion of this idea, the bride presented gloves to the pages who led her to the church, and the married men who accompanied the pair homeward.

"My wooing's ended: now my wedding's neere;

When gloves are giving."

The custom of giving gloves is still retained at Maiden Assizes (when no prisoner is capitally convicted), when a pair of white gloves is solemnly presented to the judge in token of the innocence of the charges. Originally this same gift was offered by all prisoners who received pardon after condemnation.

One pretty old custom at weddings decreed that the bride should be escorted to church by two young bachelors, who rejoiced in the title of "bride-knights," and that she should be conducted home by two married persons, who were termed "bridegroom-men." The Bride-cup

According to the authority, Polydore Vergil, in the time of Henry VIII. yet a third married man was pressed into service, and immediately preceded the bride. bearing a gold or silver vessel, called the bride-cup.

Apparently this bride-cup was carried before her on her way to the church as well as on the return journey, but presumably by a third bachelor on its first journey, for, in the account of the famous wedding of John Newcombe, "the wealthy clothier of Newbery," the bride was " led to church between two sweet boys, with bride-laces and rosemary tied about their silken sleeves.

Then there was a fair bride-cup of silver-gilt carried before her, wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary, gilded very fair, and hung about with silver ribands of all colours; next there was a noise of musicians that played all the way before her."

The rest of her retinue was composed of "the chief est maidens of the country," who carried garlands of gilded wheat and dainty bride-cakes. Then, close behind this picturesque train, came the bridegroom in all the bravery of his wedding attire, and accompanied by numerous friends.

Divination At Weddings

For the origin of this bride-cup we have to go right back to Roman days, and there we find it in the form of a "torch," but how and when one became transformed into the other is unknown.

"At Rome the manner was that two Children should lead the Bride, and a third bear before her a Torch of Whitethorn in honour of Ceres, which custome was also observed here in England, saving that, in place of the Torch, there was carried before the Bride a Bason of Gold or Silver; a Garland also of Corn Eares was set upon her head, or else she bare it on her hand; or else Wheat was scattered over her head in sign of Fruit-fulness and Prosperity."

A very popular form of amusement in the days of "Merrie England" was known as "Divination at Weddings," a custom really of great antiquity.

Among the early Romans this took the form of stone-casting, very much as we toss coins "heads or tails." The wedding sorceress would seat herself on the ground opposite the bride, and, taking five small stones, would cast them up, catching them on the back of her hand first, then in the palm, etc., and according as the stones fell would she prophesy the future of the married pair. In those days this formed quite an important part of the ceremonies, and was seldom omitted.

Another piece of prophetic lore still observed is to draw a thin slice of wedding-cake through a ring and place it under the pillow three nights in succession, and the inquirer would be rewarded by a vision of their future spouse. If no one appeared in the dream, they must resign themselves to single blessedness. Sometimes the piece is drawn through the ring (a wedding-ring by preference) to ensure more accuracy in the dream.

Crossed Swords

Another idea was for the bride to toss her bouquet right over the heads of her guests, and the one who first caught hold of it was destined to be married within a year. A curious northern superstition ordained that to obtain good fortune the bride must enter the house under two drawn swords placed in the manner of a St. Andrew's Cross x . It is possible that this may be the origin of the custom observed at military weddings, when the bridal pair pass under an arch, or an avenue, of drawn swords.