An interesting custom is still kept up at Laceby, a village in North Lincolnshire, where the bells ring a merry peal at the close of the service in which the third publication of banns has taken place. A similar custom prevailed at North Kelsey, in Lincolnshire, the practice there being to ring the peal of bells on the Monday evening after the last publication of banns, but in this latter case the custom appears to have fallen into disuse many years ago. Bells frequently bear inscriptions relating to the marriage peals; the fifth bell at Coton-in-the-Elms, Derbyshire, dated 1786, has inscribed on it:-- "The bride and groom we greet In holy wedlock joined, Our sounds are emblems sweet Of hearts in love combined." In the early part of the century it appears to have been a common practice in most parts of the country for the clerk, after the publication of the banns of marriage, to rise and say, "God speed them well;" and in some places it was usual for the congregation to respond "Amen." At Hope, in Derbyshire, this was done not only on the publication of banns, but also at the solemnization of the marriage, immediately after the abjuration--"I require and charge you both." The practice has fallen into the same oblivion which has overtaken the old parish clerk--at one period so self-important an individual in the church, and now, except in remote villages, so insignificant an official. The custom appears to have lingered for some time at Croxton Kerrial, near Melton Mowbray, and at Birkby, a village near Northallerton. The following extract from the parish registers for Chalgrave, Bedfordshire, for the year 1655, furnishes an instance of the manner in which weddings were frequently conducted during the Commonwealth, in pursuance of Cromwell's Act of Parliament, August 24, 1653, and by which the presence of a priest was entirely dispensed with:--"Henry Fisher and Sarah Newson, of Chalgrave, published three severall Lords dayes in one p{sh} meeting house called the church ended xxiij{rd} of Sept{b} and no exception made against it, and the said Henry Fisher and Sarah Newson was married the xxix{th} Sept{b}, as by certificate doth appear by Francis Austeres Esq, and in psents of Will: Martin and Abraham Newson." In the parish registers of Launceston, Cornwall, is the following entry:--"Hereaf{r} follow marriages by laymen, according to the prophanes, and giddynes of the times without precedent or example in any Christian Kingdom or Commonwealth, from the birth of Christ unto this very year 1655. "1655, The 28{th} daye of October were married by John Hicks, Gent. and Maior of this Town, John Heddon and Mary Harvey. Their banns being published in the Markett Place att Launceston three severall Markett dayes, viz., the 11{th}, the 18{th}, and the 25{th} of this instant October, without contradiction."