Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/243

 The Lifting of the Bride. 227

The first group of custom to which I shall refer is that known in the Border Counties (where alone it seems to prevail in this exact form) as the rite connected with the " Petting " or " Pettin " Stone.

One of the best accounts of this rite which I have seen has been kindly communicated to me by Mr. D. D. Dixon, of Rothbury, Northumberland.^

" Some 25 or 30 years ago this custom was performed at Whittingham Parish Church (Similes from Alnwick) in the following manner. Directly the wedding party was safely within the church, the doors were shut, and the young men of the village proceeded to erect the ' Petting Stone ' within the porch, which, despite the incongruity of the articles, consisted of three short stone pillars, which at one time had been the supports of an old ' trough ' tombstone. These were placed ' Stonehenge ' fashion immediately in front of the church door, and two of the most sprightly among the young men, generally intimate friends of the bride and bridegroom, were told off to 'jump ' the bride over the ' Petting Stone.' These two gallants waited patiently in the church porch, keeping watch and ward by ' keeking ' through the keyhole, until the ceremony was concluded, when, as soon as the marriage was duly entered in the church books, and the priest was seen coming from the vestry, the church doors were thrown open. Very often when the vicar (the late Rev. R. W. Goodenough) was in a gleeful mood, he joined in the fun, and thoroughly enjoyed the joke of being the first to jump over the ' Petting Stone.' The bridegroom and the rest of the party were next vaulted over in the same vigorous manner, each of the ladies being saluted with a kiss by the two knights of the ' Petting Stone.' If the fair young bride was foolish enough to demur, and with pouting lips and frowning face objected to the ordeal, she was said to have ^ taken the pet, ^ and

' This is reprinted from an account by the writer published in the Newcastle Cotirant of December, iS8S.

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