120 FLORAL CEREMONIES. 



" All dear Nature's children sweet, 

 Lye 'fore bride and bridegroom's feet, 



Blessing their sense ! 

 Not an angel of the air, 

 Bird melodious, or bird fair, 

 Be absent hence." 



FLETCHER. 



Even at the present day, it is quite customary 

 with us to strew the path of the bride and 

 bridegroom with flowers, and to offer them nose- 

 gays as they come from church ; and in vVales, 

 as in some of our rural districts, where the 

 primitive observances have been better pre- 

 served, wreaths and garlands are worn on such 

 occasions, and even suspended in the place of 

 worship itself; and to those who condemn this 

 practice as unchristianlike, we would say in 

 the words of Bishop Heber, "If this be 

 heathenish, Heaven help the wicked ! But I 

 hope you will not suspect that I shall lend 

 any countenance to this kind of ecclesiastical 

 'tyranny (which would forbid such rites and 

 observances), or consent to men's consciences 

 being burdened with restrictions foreign to the 

 cheerful spirit of the Gospel." This was 



