Page:Pleasures of matrimony (3).pdf/9

 the church doors are shut, and keep them from coming any farther. The knot is luckily fixed which can never he undone but by the death of one of them. And, therefore, after the ceremony of ‘I, John, take thee, Joan, to be my wedded wife: and I, Joan, take thee, John,’ &c. they go from church again, and first receive the joy of the beggars; the bridegroom, for the grandeur of the Wedding, throwing amongst them a handful of small money, which sets them a-scrambling: then taking coach, they return to the place from whence they set out, attended by the rabble, which is a mark of greatness.

Being come into the dining-room, the guests of course must all salute the bride, and in return, the bridegroom must salute all the young women; and this must sure be a great pleasure to him. This usual formality being over, the bridegroom then drinks a bumper to the whole assembly.

By this time dinner is upon the table, and marshalled with as much formality as at Lord Mayor’s feast. After the parson says grace, they fall to without farther ceremony; and here comes a new pleasure to the bridegroom, to see all the guests address their glasses to the bride, and afterwards to him. And it will be a pleasure extraordinary