M A R II I A Ci E C E R E M O N 1 E S . 
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provides a great nosegay, and shakes hands with every one he meets* 
as if he were now preparing for a condemned man's voyage/’ Nose- 
gays occur in the poem of the Collier’s wedding : — 
“ Now all prepared and ready stand 
With fans and posies in their hands.” 
Rqsemary and Bays at Weddings, — Rosemary, which was anciently 
thought to strengthen the memory, was not only carried at funerals, 
but also worn at weddings. 
In a curious wedding sermon, by Roger Hacket, D. D., 4to. Lon- 
don, 1607, entitled, ** A Marriage Present,” he thus expatiates on 
the use of rosemary at this time : “ The last of the flowers is 
rosemary, (rosraarinus, the rosemary, is for married men,) the which 
by name, nature, and contisued use, man challengeth as properly 
belonging to himselfe. It overtoppeth all the flowers in the 
garden, boasting man’s rule. It helpeth the braine, strengtheneth 
the memorie, and is very medicinable for the head. Another pro- 
perty of the rosemary is, it affects the heart. Let this rosmarinus, 
this flower of men, ensigne of your wisdome, love, and loyaltie, be 
carried not only in your hands, but in your heads and hearts.” Both 
rosemary and bays appear to have been gilded on these occasions. 
The rosemary used at weddings was previously dipped, it should 
seem, in scented water. 
We gather from the old play of Ben Jonson, entitled, the Tale of 
a Tub, that it was customary for the maidens, i. e. the bridemaids, 
on the bridegroom’s first appearance in the morning, to present him 
with a bunch of rosemary bound with ribbons. So late as the year 
1698, the old country use appears to have been kept up, of decking 
the bridal bed with sprigs of rosemary ; it is not, however, mentioned 
as being general. 
The Marriage Ceremony ^ or part of it, performed anciently in the 
Church Porch, or before the Door of the Church , — 
Can this custom have had its rise in the times of Gentilism ! Val- 
iancy informs us that “ the ancient Etruscans always were married in 
the streets, before the door of the house, which was thrown open at 
the conclusion of the ceremony.” All the ancient Missals mention, at 
the beginning of the nuptial ceremony, the placing of the man and 
woman before the door of the church, and direct, towards the con- 
clusion, that here they shall enter the church as far as the step of the 
altar. Selden, in his Uxor Hebraica, asserts, that no where else but 
before the face, and at the door, of the church, could the marriage 
dower have been lawfully assigned. , 
By the parliamentary reformation of marriage and other rites under 
king Edward the Sixth, the man and woman were first permitted to 
come into the body or middle of the church, standing no longer, as 
formerly, at the door : yet, by the following from Herrick’s Hesperides, 
one would be tempted to think that this custom had survived the 
reformation : — 
