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.

"Before we divide

Our army, let us dip our rosemaries

In one bowl of sack, to the brave girl
And to the gentleman."

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,
Take a scold and a blockhead, the match must be good."

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 18th of- -last- -at- Church by license, and before wit

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." OTWAY. 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,
Of what is curious, wise, and true.

THE WIDOW'S WARNING.

"Be wise and take no churlish clown
Nor blend with flocks thy thistle down ;
Choose not for outside; shun each lover,
But golden Ludgate-like in cover.
The ruffian that can swear and swell,
And covenant with death and h—l,
Prefer not: nor the fox, who preyes
In covert and in broken ways.
Choose not for wealth; where other things
But passant are, yet this has wings;
Nor any piece of bombast choose,
That with his place and title sues;
Taking herein the greater care,
Because they now are Chapman's ware.
Take not an husband by report;
Examine first his head-his heart-
His conscience-pierce him to the lees;
Mark how each joint of his agrees
And jumps with thine; for, if they vary,
The priest, that does your bodies marry,
But gives a pots herd; in a word,
If thou canst marry with a bird.
Of thine own feather-one whose wars
Spiritual be, whose aim is stars ;
Whose neatly timbered limbs are lined
With as polite, as rich a mind:

This is the wight; and haste thee, Jane,
To render him his rib again."

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 Regina, arising from fines to the King, from royal grants, or other matters of royal favour conferred by the King, from licences, pardons, &c

and it becomes an actual debt to the Queen's Majesty by the mere recording the fine.

Blackstone adds, that "these matters of royal 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,

The above are some of the principal waterfalls in Great Britain.

Thornton Force,

Rocky Linn, Scotland,

Wother-Cott, England,

Dank Cave,

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,
So pure and shiny, that the silver flood,

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,
Whose brim with pinks was platted,
The banks with daffodilies dight,
And grass, sieve-like, was matted."

And thus wrote Dyer, a still later poet :

66

With light fantastic toe, the nymphs

Thither assembled, thither every swain,

And o'er the dimpled stream a thousand flow'rs-
Pale lilies, roses, violets, and pinks,

Mix'd with green of burnet, mint, and thyme,
And trefoil sprinkled, with their sportive arms
Such customs long held the irrigerous vales
From Wrekein's brow to rocky Dolvoryn."

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;
Devoid of hate, devoid of strife,
Devoid of all that poisons life;
And much it 'vails you, in this place
To graft the love of human race."

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."