Page:Pleasures of matrimony displayed.pdf/9

9 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 with the ignorant.

Being come into the dining room, the guests of course must all salute the bride, and, in return, the bridegroom most 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 a Lord Mayor's feast. After the parson says grace, they fall to without any further ceremony; and here comes a new pleasure to the bridegroom, to see all the guests address their glasses to the bride, and afterwards wards to him. And it will be a pleasure extraordinary to him, if he can but keep himself sober till he goes to bed. Nor is it Less pleasure to hear the discourse at the table after the second course, when a jolly' red nosed toper, a pot-companion of the bride's father, began, saying, Marriage was instituted in a state of innocency, nay, even in Paradise; and that without it, the church would want pastors, and the kingdom soldiers to defend it. Say, farther, that children