Historical Notes 



21 



Besides being employed at the festivals of the 

 Church, or on ordinary occasions, rushes were used 

 at weddings : — 



"Full many maids, clad in their best array, 

 In honour of the bride, come with their flaskets 

 Fill'd full with flowers ; others in Avicker baskets 

 Bring from the marish rushes, to o'erspread 

 The ground, whereon to Church the lovers tread." 



Browne's Brif. Past. i. 2. 



The custom of bringing the rushes for the use of 

 the Church upon some fixed day no doubt gave rise 

 to the rush-bearing processions still prevalent in the 

 north of England. 



The Rev. G. Miles Cooper, in his paper on the 

 Abbey of Bayham, in the Sussex Archaeological Col- 

 lections," vol. ix., 1857, observes : — Though few are 

 ignorant of this ancient custom, it may not perhaps 

 be so generally knowm, that the strewing of Churches 

 grew into a religious festival, dressed up in all that 

 picturesque circumstance wherewith the Old Church 

 well knew how to array its ritual. Remains of it 

 linger to this day in remote parts of England. In 



