120 
FLORAL CEREMONIES. 
° All dear Nature’s children sweet, 
Lye ’fore bride and bridegroom’s feet. 
Blessing their sense! 
Not an angel of the air, 
Bird melodious, or bird fair, 
Be absent hence.” 
Fletcher. 
Even.at the present day, it is quite customary 
with us to strew the path of the bride and 
bridegroom with flowers, and to offer them nose¬ 
gays as they come from church ; and in Wales, 
as in some of our rural districts, where the 
primitive observances have been better pre¬ 
served, wreaths and garlands are worn on such 
occasions, and even suspended in the place of 
worship itself; and to those who condemn this 
practice as unchristianlike, we would say in 
the words of Bishop Heber , “If this be 
heathenish, Heaven help the wicked! But I 
hope you will not suspect that I shall lend 
any countenance to this kind of ecclesiastical 
tyranny-(which would forbid such rites and 
observances), or consent to men’s consciences 
being burdened with restrictions foreign 'to the 
cheerful spirit of the Gospel.” This was 
