(1) The custom of eating a posset at going to bed seems to have prevailed generally among our ancestors. The Tobacconist, in "The Wandering Jew telling Fortunes to English Men," 4to. Lond. 1640, p. 20, says: "And at my going to bed, this is my posset." Skinner derives the word from the French poser, residere, to settle; because, when the milk breaks, the cheesy parts, being heavier, subside.

See

"Nobis proprie designat lac calidum infuso vino cerevisia, &c. coagulatum." Junii Etymol. in verbo.

Herrick has not overlooked the Posset in his 'Hesperides,” p. 253:

"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 in the "West Country Clothier," before cited, where we are told "the Sack-Posset must be eaten.

In "The Fifteen Comforts of Marriage,' p. 60, it is called "an ancient custoin of the English matrons, who believe that sack will make a man lusty, and sugar will make him kind."

Among the Anglo-Saxons, as Strutt informs us, in his "Manners and Customs,” vol. i. p. 77, at night the bride was by the women attendants placed in the marriage-bed, (a) and the

(a) Misson, in his "Travels," p. 352, says: "The Bridemaids 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 Bridemaids if they keep one of them, for they will not be married before Whitsontide." Or, as we read in "Hymen," &c., 8vo. Lond. 1760, p. 173," till the Easter following at soonest."

I here take the opportunity of making a trifling addition to what has been before said on Marriage Sermons. I have one with this quaint title: "A Wedding Ring fit for the Finger, or the Salve of

bridegroom in the same manner conducted by the men, where having both, with all who were present, drunk the marriage health, the company retired.

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, in his "Travels in England," translated by Ozell, p. 352, says: "The Posset is a kind of Cawdle, a potion made up of milk, wine, yolks of eggs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg," &c. He adds, p. 354, “They never fail to bring them another Sack-posset next morning."

(2) It is so called by Smollett in his "Humphrey Clinker," vol. iii. ad finem, edit. 1771, p. 265, as also hinted at by Herrick in his "Hesperides," p. 132:

"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 the papal times no new-married couple could go to bed together till 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," 4to. 1779, p. 92, 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. We learn from "Articles ordained by King Henry VII. for the

Divinity on the Sore of Humanity, laid open in a Sermon at a Wedding in Edmonton, by William Secker, preacher of the Gospel," 8vo. Lond. 1661.

Regulation of his Household," published by the Society of Antiquaries, that this ceremony was observed at the marriage of a princess. "All men at her coming 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."

See also the Appendix to Hearne's "Hist. and Antiq. of Glastonbury," p. 309; and St. Foix, Essais sur Paris.

(3) Herrick, in his "Hesperides," in the Nuptial Song on Sir Clipesby Crew and his Lady, ut supra, is express to this purpose, as a then prevailing custom:

"But since it must be done, dispatch and

Sowe

Up in a sheet your bride, and what if so," &c.

It is mentioned 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: "At night there was sewing into the sheet."

"AMONG the Anglo-Saxons," as we gather from Strutt, vol. i. p. 77, after the marriage, "next morning the whole company came into the chamber of the new-married couple, before they arose, to hear the husband declare the Morning's Gift, when his relations became sureties to the wife's relations for the performance of such promises as were made by the husband." This was the ancient pin-money, and became the separate property of the wife alone.

Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, voce COWYLL, explains that word as signifying a garment or cloak with a veil, presented by the husband to his bride on the morning after marriage: (1) and, in a wider sense, the settlement he has made on her of goods and chattels adequate to her rank. In more modern times there is a custom similar to this in

Prussia. There the husband may (is obliged if he has found her a virgin) present to his bride the Morgengabe or Gift on the Morning after Marriage, even though he should have married a widow.

The custom of awaking a couple the morning after the marriage with a concert of music is of old standing.

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."

Of such a reveille matin, as used on the marriages of respectable merchants of London in his time, Hogarth has left us a curious re presentation in one of his prints of the Idle and Industrious Apprentice. (2)

(2) 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 abro

gated by King Malcome 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. Hect. Boet. 1. iii. c. 12. Spotsw. Hist. fol. 29.

One cannot help observing, on the above, that they must have been bondmen, or (in

(2) So in the "Comforts of Wooing," &c. p. 62: "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."

Misson, in his "Travels in England," translated by Ozell, p. 252, speaking of the reveillez on the morning after a wedding, says: "If the drums and fiddles have notice of it, they will be sure to be with them by daybreak, making a horrible racket, till they have got the pence."

Gay, in his "Trivia," has censured the use of drums in this concert :

"Here rows of drummers stand in martial

To greet the new-made bride. Are sounds like these

The proper prelude to a state of peace?""

The custom of Creeling, on the second day after marriage, has been already noticed in p. 56, from Sir John Sinclair's "Statistical Account of Scotland." Allan Ramsay, in his "Poems," 4to. Edinb. 1721, p. 125, mentions this custom as having been practised the day after the marriage. He adds, "Tis a custom for the friends to endeavour the next day after the wedding to make the new-married man as drunk as possible."

"In North Wales," says Mr. Pennant's manuscript, "on the Sunday after marriage, the company who were at it come to church, i. e. the friends and relations of the party make the most splendid appearance, disturb the church, and strive who shall place the bride and groom in the most honourable seat. After service is over, the men, with fiddlers before them, go into all the ale-houses in the town."

In the "Monthly Magazine" for 1798, p. 417, we read: "It is customary, in country churches, when a couple has been newly married, for the singers to chant, on the following Sunday, a particular psalm, thence called the Wedding Psalm, in which are these words: Oh, well is thee, and happy shalt thou be.""

A CUSTOM formerly prevailed, and has indeed been recently observed, at Dunmow in Essex, of giving a flitch of bacon to any married man or woman who would swear that neither of them, in a year and a day, either sleeping or waking, repented of their marriage. The singular oath administered to them ran thus:

"You shall swear by custom of confession, If ever you made nuptial transgression,

Be you either married man or wife,
If you have brawls or contentious strife;
Or otherwise, at bed or at board,
Offended each other in deed or word:
Or, since the parish-clerk said Amen,
You wish'd yourselves unmarried agen,
Or, in a twelvemonth and a day,
Repented not in thought any way,
But continued true in thought and desire
As when you join'd hands in the quire.

The parties were to take this oath before the Prior and Convent and the whole town, humbly kneeling in the churchyard upon two hard pointed stones, which still are shown. They were afterwards taken upon men's shoulders, and carried, first, about the priory churchyard, and after through the town, with all the friars and brethren, and all the townsfolk, young and old, following them with shouts and acclamations, with their bacon before them. (1)

Dugdale, from whom Blount seems to have obtained the greater part of his information on the Dunmow Bacon, gives the oath in prose from the collections of Sir Richard St. George, Garter, about 1640.

He adds, that "in the book belonging to the house," he had found the memoranda of three claims prior to the dissolution. The first is in the seventh year of King Edward IV., when a gammon of bacon was delivered to one Steven Samuel of Little Ayston; the second, in the 23d year of King Henry VI., when a flitch was delivered to Richard Wright of Badbourge, near the city of Norwich; and the third, in 1510, the second year of King Henry VIII., whem a gammon was delivered to Thomas Ley, fuller, of Coggeshall in Essex. (a)

(a) Dugd. Mon. Angl. tom. ii. p. 79. See also Morant's Hist. of Essex," vol. ii. p. 429.

Among the rolls belonging to the Lansdowne collection of manuscripts in the British Museum, No. 25 is a copy on parchment of the record of proceedings at the manor-court of Dunmow, late the priory, in the county of Essex, before the steward, jury, suitors, and other officers of the said court, on the delivery of two gammons of bacon to John Reynolds, of Hatfield Regis, and Ann his wife, who had been married ten years; and to William Parsley, of Much Eyston, butcher, and Jane his wife, who had been married three years on the 27th of June, 1701. It is stated that the bacon was delivered "with the usual solemnity." This record contains the rhyming oath and sentence. The jury consisted of five spinsters.

It is stated in a newspaper of the year 1772, that on the 12th of June that year, John and Susan Gilder, of the parish of Tarling, in Essex, made their public entry into Dunmow, escorted by a great concourse of people, and demanded the gammon of bacon, according to notice previously given, declaring themselves ready to take the usual oath; but to the great disappointment of the happy couple and their numerous attendants, the priory gates were found fast nailed, and all admittance refused, in pursuance of the express orders of the lord of the manor. Mr. Gough, in his edition of Camden's "Britannia," 1809, vol. ii. p. 54, mentions that the custom is now abolished, "on account of the abuse of it in these loose

principled times.”

The "John Bull" newspaper, Oct. 8, 1837, speaks of the renewal of this ceremony at a meeting of the Saffron Walden and Dunmow Agricultural Society.

The Dunmow bacon is alluded to in the "Visions of Pierce Plowman," and in Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Prologue." A similar custom prevailed at Whichnovre, in Staffordshire.(2)

(1) Blount's "Jocular Tenures," by Beckwith, 8vo. York, 1784, p. 296. A writer in the "Gent. Mag." for 1751, vol. xxi. p. 248, attributes the origin of this ceremony to an ancient

institution of the Lord Fitzwalter, in the reign of King Henry III., who ordered that "whatever married man did not repent of his marriage, or quarrel with his wife, in a year and a

day after it, should go to his priory, and demand the bacon, on his swearing to the truth, kneeling on two stones in the churchyard." The form and ceremony of the claim, as made in 1701, by William Parsley, of Much Easton, in the county of Essex, butcher, and Jane his wife, is detailed in the same page.

I have a large print, now become exceedingly rare, entitled "An exact perspective view of Dunmow, late the Priory, in the County of Essex, with a representation of the ceremony and procession in that Mannor, on Thursday the 20th of June, 1751, when Thomas Shapeshaft, of the parish of Weathersfield, in the county aforesaid, weaver, (a) and Ann his wife, came to demand and did actually receive a Gammon of Bacon, having first kneeled down upon two bare stones within the church door and taken the oath, &c. N.B. Before the dissolution of monasteries it does not appear, by searching the most ancient records, to have been demanded above three times, and, including this, just as often since.

"Taken on the spot and engraved by David Ogborne.'

(2) This appears to have been in conformity to an ancient tenure, and was certainly as old as the tenth year of King Edward III., when the manor was held by Sir Philip de Somerville.

The oath, as appears by the following copy, was less strict than that at Dunmow; it was taken on a book laid above the bacon:

(a) The Gent. Mag." vol. xxi. p. 282, calls him "John Shakeshanks, wool-comber."

"Here ye, Sir Philippe de Somervile, Lord of Whichenovre, maynteyner and gyver of this Baconne, that I A. sithe I wedded B. my wife, and sythe I hadd hyr in my kepyng, and at my wylle, by a yere and a day, after our mariage, I wold not have chaunged for none other, farer ne fowler, rycher ne pourer, ne for none other descended of greater lynage, slepyng ne waking, at noo tyme. Aud yf the seyd B. were sole, and I sole, I would take her to be my wyfe, before all the wymen of the worlde, of what condiciones soever they be, good or evylle, as helpe me God and hys Seyntys; and this flesh and all fleshes."

It is observable that this Whichenovre Flitch was to be hanging in the hall of the manor "redy arrayede all times of the yere, bott in Lent." It was to be given to every man or woman married, "after the day and the yere of their marriage be past and to be gyven to everyche mane of religion, archbishop, bishop, prior, or other religious, and to every che preest, after the year and day of their profession finished, or of their dignity reseyved." See Plott's "Hist. of Stafford

shire," p. 440.

This whimsical institution it should seem was not confined entirely to Dunmow and Whichenovre, for there was the same abroad in Bretagne. "A l'Abbaie Saincte Melaine, pres Rennes, y a plus de six cens ans sont un costé de lard encore tout frais et ordonné aux premiers qui par an et jour ensemble mariez ont vescu san debat, gronde merit, et saus s'en repentir." Contes d'Eutrap. tom. ii. p. 161.

UNDER the head of Marriage Customs naturally falls the consideration of the vulgar saying that "a husband wears horns,” or is

VOL. II.

As you Like It. Act iii. sc. 3.

a Cornute, when his wife proves false to him; as also that of the meaning of the word "Cuckold," which has for many ages been the

I