MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. 
287 
confirms beyond a doubt, the sense here given — “ til ein rar Meyar 
er trulofad var einum Manne,” &c., i. e. to a Virgin espoused, that 
is, who w'as promised, or had engaged herself, to a man, Sfc. 
Hence evidently the bride-favours or the top-knots at marriages, 
which had been considered as emblems of the ties of duty and affec- 
tion between the bride and her spouse, have been derived. 
Bride-favours appear to have been worn by the peasantry of France, 
on similar occasions, on the arm. In England, these knots of ribbons 
were distributed in great abundance formerly, even at the marriages 
of persons of the first distinction. They were worn on the hat, (the 
gentleman’s, we suppose,) and consisted of ribbons of various colours. 
If we mistake not, white ribbons are the only ones used at present. 
To this variety of colours in the bride-favours used formerly, the 
following passage, wherein lady Haughty addresses Morose, in Jen- 
son’s play of the Silent Woman, evidently alludes : 
Let us know your bride’s colours and your’s at least.” 
The bride-favours have not been omitted in the northern provincial 
poem of “ The Collier’s Wedding.” 
“ The blithsome, buxom, country maids. 
With knots of ribands at their heads. 
And pinners flutt’ring in the wind. 
That fan before and toss behind, &c.” 
And, speaking of the youth, with the bridegroom, it says, — 
“ Like streamers in the painted sky. 
At every breast the favours fly.” 
Bride Maids. — The use of bride- maids at weddings appears as old 
as the time of the Anglo-Saxons ; among whom, as Strutt informs us, 
“ the bride was led by a matron, who was called the bride’s woman, 
followed by a company of young maidens, who were called the bride’s 
maids.” 
The bride-maids and bridegroom men are both mentioned by the 
author of the Convivial Antiquities, in his description of rites at 
marriages in his country and time. 
In later times it was among the offices of the bride-maids to lead 
the bridegroom to church, as it was the duty of the bridegroom men 
to cbaduct the bride thither. 
This has not been overlooked in the provincial poem of the Col- 
lier’s Wadding 
j ** Two lusty lads, well drest and strong, ^ 
^ ^ Stepp’d out to lead the bride along: 
Arid two young maids, of equal size, 
® / As soon the bridegroom’s hand surprise.” 
jSridegxohm Men. — These appear anciently to have had the title of 
Bride /Knights. Those who led the bride to church were always 
bachelors ; but she was to be conducted home by two married per- 
sons. l?olyd ore Virgil, who wrote in the time of Henry the Eighth, 
liqforms us t^^^ married man, in coming home from church, 
preceded the bride, bearing, instead of a torch, a vessel of silver or 
