290 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°<i S. X. Oct. 13. '60. 



for that purpose on May 19, 1693. There can be little 

 doubt that the list printed in The Life of John Kettlewell 

 is the one submitted to James 11., as Dr. Hickes was one 

 of the editors of that work. Will some kind friend con- 

 nected with the Bodleian inform us whether Dr. Rawlins 

 son left a more complete list among his materials for a 

 History of the Nonjurors? By the bye, when maj' we 

 expect the promised Index to the Eawlinson manu- 

 scripts?] 



Marriage with the Church Key. — In mar- 

 riages celebrated by the Church, did you ever 

 hear of any substitute for the ring ? During my 

 country perambulations this summer and autumn 

 I have heard reports, though I scarcely know 

 how to credit them, of marriages celebrated, in 

 default of a ring, with the church key. 



Paul Pry. 



Minories, Sept. 24. 1860. 



[As the Query of our correspondent refers not only to 

 church kej's, but to other substitutes for the wedding 

 ring, we will mention one substitute that we have heard 

 of; namely, a ring of leather cut transversely from a 

 finger of the bridegroom's glove. It was a stolen match. 

 The young lady's mother, a widow, had made objections 

 to the party proposing, and as far as possible kept h^ 

 daughter at home, to be under her ej'e. One fine morn- 

 ing, however, it happened that she wanted to buy a pair 

 of shoes ; so for greater security she took her daughter 

 out with her to the shoemaker's. Seizing the auspicious 

 moment when mamma, seated in the shoemaker's back 

 parlour, had " one shoe off, and one shoe on," the younger 

 lady slipped out of the shop, and slipped into the church. 

 There, by the oddest coincidence, she found her accepted, 

 just as if he had been waiting for her! and, strange to 

 saj', he had got the licence in his pocket ! Naj', to crown 

 all, the clergyman was there in full canonicals, and also 

 the clerk I In short, all things seemed propitious for 

 prompt solemnisation. But, alas, there was a hitch ; the 

 bridegroom had forgotten the ring! He, however, not 

 choosing to be beat, and probably not initiated as to the 

 availability of a church key, whipped off his glove, 

 •whipped out his pocket-knife, and with two cuts ex- 

 temporised a ring of leather, with which the ceremony 

 was performed. The anxious mother, after rushing half 

 over the town in search of her missing daughter, came 

 flustered into the church just in time to be deferentially 

 saluted by her new son-in-law. Angry words ensued, 

 but were followed by a prompt reconciliation, much ge- 

 neral shaking of hands, the maternal blessing, and a few 

 kisses. The happy pair walked out of the church arm- 

 in-arm, preceded in like guise by the vicar and the widow. 



Respecting the substitution of the church key for the 

 wedding ring, we, as well as our correspondent, have 

 heard reports ; reports, however, which referred only to 

 exceptional cases and a former generation. We have 

 been assured by an aged inhabitant of a rural parish not 

 a hundred miles from Colchester that some time before 

 the induction of the present incumbent, who has held the 

 living for these fifteen j'ears last past, a marriage was 

 celebrated in the parish church with the church key in- 

 stead of a ring. Our informant had also heard of the 

 same mode of proceeding, as having occasionally occurred 

 in the neighbourhood. For fuller and more accurate in- 

 formation we were referred to the parish clerk, as both a 

 trustworthy and an intelligent person. He also had heard 

 of marriages with the church kej' instead of a ring having 

 formerly occurred in the neighbourhood ; and, what was 

 more to the purpose, he perfectly recollected one instance, 

 of a party that came to the church of which he was and 



is clerk, and requested to be married with the church 

 key. It was what is called a "parish wedding;" and 

 the parochial authorities, though willing to pay the 

 church fees, because " they were glad to get rid of the 

 girl," had not felt disposed to furnish the wedding ring. 

 The clerk stated, however, that feeling some hesitation 

 as to the substitution of the church key in his own 

 church, he stepped into the great house hard by, and 

 there borrowed an old curtain ring, with which the mar- 

 riage was solemnised. 



Having now stated all we know of the present subject, 

 we would rather leave the church key as we find it, and 

 hear what our correspondents may have to say, than view 

 the question as settled without farther ventilation.] 



Double Surnames. — Instances have lately been 

 given of Englishmen bearing two surnames ; but 

 where I now am I sometimes find two surnames, 

 belonging to one and the same individual, linked 

 together after a manner not quite in accordance 

 with the usual English practice, by the conjunc- 

 tion copulative. Thus a Portuguese gentleman 

 shall be surnamed " Mello e Souza" (Mello and 

 Souza), and a Spaniard "Gomes y Tojar " (Gomes 

 and Tojar). We should say "Jones alias Tom- 

 kins." If we said " Jones anc? Tomkins," we should 

 of course be understood to mean two different 

 persons. I should be thankful for an explanation 

 of the foreign practice, as I find it in Spanish and 

 Portuguese. J. S. 



Cintra. 



[In Spain and Portugal children sometimes bear the 

 family names of both their parents. The father of Sr. 

 Mello e Souza was a Mello, the mother was a Souza. In 

 the other instance the father was a Gomes, the mother a 

 Tojar. The practice, we believe, is adopted only when 

 both father and mother belong to families of some pro- 

 perty, consideration, or hereditary distinction.] 



Gainsborough's Chef-d'OEuvrb. — Some have 

 considered " The Peasant Girl going to a Brook 

 for Water " as the most perfect of his perform- 

 ances, and happening to meet with a volume of 

 the papers of the Morning Herald of seventy-five 

 years old, I found under the date of Monday, 

 June 6, 1785, that — - 



"This delightful picture was sold to Sir Francis Bas- 

 set*, Bart., of Tehidy Park, M.P. for Penryn, for two 

 hundred guineas. The little subject of this piece was 

 met by Thomas Gainsborough near Richmond-hill, with 

 the little dog under her arm, who is her companion upon 

 the canvass." 



There is a representation (a wood-cut) of this 

 cottage girl with her dog and pitcher, in Lives of 

 the most Eminent British Painters, by Allan Cun- 

 ningham, vol. i. p. 339. ; and I beg to be informed 

 through the medium of your journal in whose 

 possession the picture now is. 2. 2. 



[Sir Francis Basset was created Baron de Dunstanville 

 17th June, 1796, and died 6th Feb. 1835. The picture, 

 most probably, is still in the possession of the family. 

 See Fulcher's Life of Thomas Gainsborough, ed. 1856, pp. 

 140. 194.] 



Afterwards Lord de Dunstanville (extinct 1835). 



