MARRIAGE CEREMONIES, 
gold* Moresia relates, that to the bachelors and married men who 
led the bride to and from the church, she was wont to present gloves 
for that service during the time of dinner. 
In a curious old book called, *‘The Fifteen Comforts of Marriage,” 
a conference is introduced at p. 44, 46, and 48, concerning bridal 
colours in dressing up the bridal-bed, by bridemaids: — Not (say they) 
with yellow ribbands^ these are tire emblems of jealousy — nor with 
feuillernortf which signifies fading love; but with truebhe, that signifies 
constancy, as green denotes youth: put them both together, and 
there’syouthful constancy. — One proposed blue and black, which signi- 
fies constancy till death ; but that was objected to, as these colours 
will never match. — Violet was proposed, as signifying religion ; this 
was objected to as being too grave ; and at last they concluded to 
mingle gold tissue with grass green, which latter signifies youthful 
jolity. — For the bride’s favour, (top-knots and garters,) the bride 
proposed blue, gold colour, popinjay green, lemon colour ; but they 
objected to gold colour, as signifying avarice, and to popinjay green, 
as indicating wantonness. The younger bride-maid proposed mixture, 
flame-colour, willow, and milk tvhite. The second objected to it, as 
willow signifies forsaken. It was settled that red signifies justice, and 
sea-green inconstancy. The milliner at last fixed the colours : for the 
Favours, blue, red, peach-colour, and orange-tawny ; for the young 
ladies’ Top-knots, grass-green and milk-white ; and for the garters, a 
perfect yellow, signifying honour and joy. 
Garlands at -Nuptial garlands are of the most remote 
antiquity. They appear to have been equally used by the Jews and 
the Heathens. 
Among the Anglo-Saxons, after the benediction in the church, both 
the bride and bridegroom were adorned with crowns of flowers, kept 
in the church for that purpose. 
In the Eastern church, the chaplets used on these occasions appear 
to have been blessed. 
The nuptial garlands were sometimes made of myrtle. 
In England, in the time of Henry the Eighth, the bride wore a gar- 
land of corn-ears, sometimes one of flowers. 
Gloves at Weddings : — The giving of gloves at marriages is a custom 
of remote antiquity. 
The following notice of them occurs in a letter to Mr. Winwood from 
Sir Dudley Carleton, dated London, 1604, concerning the manner of 
celebrating the marriage betw^een Sir Philip Herbert and the Lady 
Susan : ‘‘No ceremony was omitted of bride-cakes, points, garters, 
and gloves.’^ 
In Ben Jonson’s play of the Silent Woman, Lady Haughty observes 
to Morose, “ We see no ensigns of a wedding here, no character of 
a b rid ale ; where be our skarves and our gloves?” 
The custom of giving away gloves at weddings occurs in the old 
play of “ The Miseries of inforced Marriage.” White gloves still con- 
tinue to be presented to the guests on this occasion. The following 
is an extract of the late Rev. Dr. Lort’s : “ At Wrexham in Flintshire, 
on occasion of the marriage of the surgeon and apothecary of the 
