[Footnote 412: EARLE, _Customs and Fashions_, 77. "A poem, by Mrs. Emma Willard, entitled 'Bride-Stealing, a Tale of New England's Middle Ages,' is preserved in Everest's _Poets of Connecticut_. It gives a poetical account of one among many instances of 'stealing the bride' that occurred in the early days of the colony."--HOLLISTER, _Hist. of Conn._, I, 438, note. See also STILES, _Windsor_, 475; WEEDEN, _Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E._, I, 295; and HUNTINGTON, _Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Hadley_ (Northampton, 1859), 43.] [Footnote 413: See above, chap. x, sec. ii, p. 441, note 3.] [Footnote 414: EARLE, _Customs and Fashions_, 77-79, where several instances are discussed. See also PRIME, _Along New England Roads_; WEEDEN, _Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of N. E._, II, 538.] In the eighteenth century weddings were accompanied by much revelry and extravagance. Gloves, rings, and scarves, as at funerals, were given away in such profusion as to call for legislation to check the abuse.[415] Unstinted feasting and drinking were the order of the day. "Sack-posset" appears to have been the favorite wedding beverage.[416] "All the friends were entertained at the bride's home with a collation or supper, and afterward a dance; while in the country they were the most important social events. The banns were proclaimed in church, and all the neighbors were invited from the pulpit to attend the ceremony. On the day of the wedding muskets were fired, a procession was formed, and marched to the bride's house, where the marriage took place; and then came a dinner, a dance, and great merry-making. Usually these wedding feasts lasted through the day and evening, but they were sometimes kept up for two or three days. On one occasion at New London there was a great wedding dance on the day after the marriage, when ninety-two ladies and gentlemen assembled and proceeded to dance ninety-two jigs, fifty-two contra-dances, forty-five minuets, and seventeen hornpipes. This was probably an extreme case; but all over New England weddings were great occasions, and were celebrated with much pomp and rejoicing."[417] [Footnote 415: NOURSE, _Hist. of the Town of Harvard, Mass., 1732-1893_ (Harvard, 1894), 498, gives details as to marriage fees received and entered in his record by the local clergyman. At first John Seccomb usually had 5 shillings; later, about 1750, his fee became "one pound old tenor;" still later generally "a dollar," or "half a dollar," and once a "pistareen." From 1760 Rev. Joseph Wheely usually records "2£ 5s." During the Revolution the ordinary charge was six shillings legal money.]