HERBS USED IN DECORATIONS, ETC. 109 



put forward, before the last Coronation, but alas ! His 

 Majesty decided to dispense with this picturesque ad- 

 junct to the ceremony ! Though the strewing of rushes 

 and herbs was a part of the preparations for any 

 household festival, they were a special feature of bridal 

 ceremonies. 



As I have seen upon a bridal day, 

 Full many maids clad in their best array, 

 In honour of the bride come with their flaskets 

 Fill'd full with flowers : others, in wicker-baskets 

 Bring from the marish, rushes to o'erspread 

 The ground whereon to church the lovers tread. 



Br. Pastorals^ book i. 



Drayton, too, alludes to this practice in the " Poly- 

 olbion." 



Some others were again as seriously employ'd 



In strewing of those herbs, at bridals us'd that be 



Which everywhere they throw with bounteous hands and free. 



The healthful balm and mint from their full laps do fly. 



Song XV. 



And gives a long list of wedding flowers, of which 

 Meadow-sweet (sometimes called bridewort) is one. 

 Gilded Rosemary, or sprigs of Rosemary dipped in 

 sweet waters were used, and Brand gives an account 

 of a wedding where the bride was "led to church 

 between two sweet boys with bride-laces and rosemary 

 tied to their silken sleeves."^ Nosegays, too, were 

 gathered for weddings, and Brand quotes a remarkable 

 and cynical passage from " The Plaine Country Bride- 

 groom," by Stephens : " He shews neere afEnitie betwixt 

 marriage and hanging, and to that purpose he provides a 

 great nosegay and shakes hands with everyone he meets, 

 as if he were preparing for a condemned man's voyage." 

 Herrick's lines beginning, "Strip her of spring-time, 

 tender, whimpering maids," are too well known to 

 repeat, but they tell very prettily which flowers were 



1 Popular Antiquities. 



