AMONG the Anglo-Saxons, as Strutt informs us in his "Manners and Customs," vol. i. p. 76, after the nuptial feast, "the remaining part of the day was spent by the youth of both sexes in mirth and dancing, while the graver sort sat down to their drinking bout, in which they highly delighted."

Among the higher ranks there was, in later times, a wedding-sermon, (a) an Epithalamium, (1) and at night a masque. (*)]

It was a general custom between the wedding-dinner and supper to have dancing. (3)

The cushion-dance at weddings is thus mentioned in the "Apophthegms of King James, the Earl of Worcester, &c.," 12mo. Lond. 1658, p. 60,-a wedding entertainment is spoken of:-"At last when the masque was ended, and time had brought in

(a) See pp. 86, 92.

the supper, the Cushion led the dance out of the parlour into the hall," &c. (*)

In Strype's "Annals of the Reformation," vol. ii. p. 394, anno 1575, among the various sports, &c., used to entertain Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle, he tells us: "That afternoon (as the relator expresseth it), in honour of this Kenilworth Castle, and of God and St. Kenelme (whose day by the kalendar this was), was a solemn country bridal, with running at Quintin." The queen stayed here nineteen days.

It appears from the Glossary to Bishop Kennet's "Parochial Antiquities," that the Quintain was anciently a customary sport at weddings. He says it was used in his time at Blackthorne, and at Deddington, in Oxfordshire. It is supposed to have been a Roman exercise, left by that people at their departure from this island. (5)

dauncynge place. Then is there such a rennynge, leapynge, and flyngyng amonge them, then is there suche a lyftynge up and discoverynge of the damselles clothes and other womenne's apparell, that a man might thynke they were sworne to the Devels Daunce. Then muste the poore bryde kepe foote with al dauncers and refuse none, how scabbed, foule, droncken, rude, and shameles soever he be. Then must she oft tymes heare and se much wyckednesse and many an uncomely word; and that noyse and romblyng endureth even tyll supper."

So, in the "Summe of the Holy Scripture," &c., 8vo. Lond. 1547, Signat. H. 3 b.: "Suffer not your children to go to weddings or banckettes; for nowe a daies one learne nothing there but ribaudry and foule wordes."

can

Compare also Steevens's edition of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 193, note.

Northbrooke, in his "Treatise against Dauncing," p. 137, says: "In the Counsell of Laoditia, A.D. 364, it was decreed thus; It is not meete for Christian men to daunce at their mariages. Let the cleargie aryse and go their wayes when the players on the instruments (which serve for dauncing) doe begynne to playe, least by their presence they shoulde seeme to allowe that wantonnesse." Fiddlers are called Crowders. Ibid. p. 141. In Scott's "Mock Marriage," a Comedy, 4to. Lond. 1696, p. 50, it is said:

"You are not so merry as men in your condition should be. What! a couple of weddings and not a dance?"

(*) So, in the popular old ballad called "The Winchester Wedding :"

"And now they had din'd, advancing
Into the midst of the hall,

The fiddlers struck up for dancing,
And Jeremy led up the brawl.
Sucky, that danc'd with the cushion," &c.

In "The Dancing-Master," &c., printed by J. Heptinstall, for Samuel Sprint and H. Playford, at his shop in the Temple Change, or at his house in Arundel-street, in the Strand, 1698, p. 7, is an account of

"Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance, an old Round Dance.

"This dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who, taking a cushion in his hand, dances about the room, and at the end of the tune he stops and sings, This dance it will no farther go. The Musician answers, I pray you, good sir, why say you so? Man. Because Joan Sanderson will not come to. Musick. She must come to, and she shall come to, and she must come whether she will or no. Then he lays down the cushion before a woman, on which she kneels, and he kisses her, singing, Welcom, Joan Sanderson, welcom, welcom. Then she rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance, singing, Prinkum-prank'um is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it once again, and once again, and shall we go dance it once again? Then making a stop, the woman sings as before, This dance it will no farther

go.

Musick. I pray you, Madam, why say

you so? Woman. Because John Sanderson will not come to. Musick. He must come to, &c. (as before). And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing, Welcome, John Sanderson, &c. Then, he taking up the cushion, they take hands and dance round, singing, as before, and thus they do till the whole company are taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid before the first man, the woman singing, This dance, &c. (as before), only instead of Come to, they sing Go fro: and, instead of Welcome, John Sanderson, &c., they sing, Farewell, John Sanderson, farewell, farewell; and so they go out one by one, as they came in. Note, the woman is kiss'd by all the men in the ring, at her coming in and going out, and likewise the man by the women."

The following extract from Selden's "Table Talk," under "King of England," 7, is illustrative of our Cushion-Dance: "The Court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing, first you have the grave measures, then the Corrantoes and the Galliards, and this is kept up with ceremony, at length to French-more" (it should be Trenchmore), "and the cushion-dance, and then all the company dance, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no distinction. So in our Court, in Queen Elizabeth's time, gravity and state were kept up. In King James's time things were pretty well. But in King Charles's time there has been nothing but French-more, and the Cushion-Dance, omnium gatherum, tolly, polly, hoite come toite."

In the same work, under the head "Excommunication," is an allusion to the custom of dancing at weddings: "Like the wench that was to be married: she asked her mother, when 'twas done, if she should go to bed presently? no, says her mother, you must dine first; and then to bed, mother? no, you must dance after dinner; and then to bed, mother? no, you must go to supper," &c.

(5) We read in Blount's "Glossographia,” v. QUINTAIN, that it is "a game or sport still in request at marriages, in some parts of this nation, specially in Shropshire: the manner, now corruptly thus, a Quintin, buttress, or thick plank of wood, is set fast in the ground of the highway where the bride and

bridegroom are to pass; and poles are provided, with which the young men run a tilt on horseback, and he that breaks most poles, and shows most activity, wins the garland.”

From Aubrey's "Remains of Gentilisme and Judaism," it should appear that this was a common sport at weddings, till the breaking out of the civil wars, even among people in the lower rank of life.

"On Offham Green," says Hasted, "History of Kent," vol. ii. p. 224, "there stands a quintin, a thing now rarely to be met with, being a machine much used in former times by youth, as well to try their own activity as the swiftness of their horses in running at it. (He gives an engraving of it.) The crosspiece of it is broad at one end, and pierced full of holes, and a bag of sand is hung at the other, and swings round on being moved with any blow. The pastime was for the youth on horseback to run at it as fast as possible, and hit the broad part in his career with much force. He that by chance hit it not at all

was treated with loud peals of derision; and he who did hit it made the best use of his swiftness, lest he should have a sound blow on his neck from the bag of sand, which instantly swang round from the other end of the quintin. The great design of this sport was to try the agility of the horse and man, and to break the board, which whoever did, he was accounted chief of the day's sport. It stands opposite the dwelling-house of the estate, which is bound to keep it up." The same author, ibid. p. 639, speaking of Bobbing parish, says, "There was formerly a quintin in this parish, there being still a field in it called from thence the Quintin-Field."

Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, v. CWINTAN, describes a Hymeneal game thus acted: "A pole is fixed in the ground, with sticks set about it, which the bridegroom and his company take up, and try their strength and activity in breaking them upon the pole."

For an account of the QUINTAIN as a more general sport, see vol. i. p. 212.

DIVINATION at marriages was practised in times of the remotest antiquity. Vallancey tells us that in the "Memoirs of the Etruscan Academy of Cortona" is the drawing of a picture found in Herculaneum, representing a marriage. In the front is a sorceress casting the five stones. The writer of the Memoir justly thinks she is divining. The figure exactly corresponds with the first and principal cast of the Irish Purin: all five are cast up, and the first catch is on the back of the hand. He has copied the drawing on the back of the hand stands one, and the remaining four on the ground. Opposite the sorceress is the matron, attentive to the success of the cast. No marriage ceremony was performed without consulting the Druidess and her Purin:

"Auspices solebant nuptiis interesse." Juvenal, Sat. xii. (1)

In the North, and perhaps all over England, as has been already noticed, slices of the bride-cake are thrice, some say nine times, put through the wedding-ring, which are afterwards by young persons laid under their pillows when they go to bed, for the purpose of making them dream of their lovers, or of exciting prophetic dreams of love and marriage. (*)

For the sun to shine upon the bride was a good omen. (3)

It was formerly a custom among the noble Germans, at weddings, for the bride, when she was conducted to the bride-chamber, to take off her shoe and throw it among the bystanders, which every one strove to catch, and whoever got it thought it an omen that they themselves would shortly be happily married. (4)

In a letter from Sir Dudley Carleton to Mr. Winwood, London, January, 1604,