Thomas Filsby and Ursula Russet were married; and because the said Thomas is naturally deaf and dumb, could not for his part observe the order of the form of marriage, after the approbation had of Thomas, the Bishop of Lincoln, John Chippendale, LL.D., and Commissary, and Mr. Richard Davis, of Leicester, and others of his brethren, with the rest of the parish, the said Thomas for expressing of his mind instead of words, of his own accord used these signs: First he embraced her with his arms, took her by the hand, and put a ring on her finger, and laid his hand upon his heart and held up his hands towards heaven; and to show his countenance to dwell with her till his life's end, he did, by closing his eyes with his hands, and digging the earth with his feet, and pulling as though he would ring a bell, with other signs approved." An interesting feature in the marriage announcements a century ago, was the detail given respecting the fortune of the bride. Matters which now we regard as more or less private were then openly advertised to the world. _Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser_ for 1759, contains the following notice: "Liverpool, May 25. On Tuesday last was married at Hale, Dr. Zachariah Leafe, of Prescot, to Miss Martha Clough, of Halewood, an agreeable young lady of 18 years of age, with a very genteel fortune." _The Leeds Intelligencer_, for July 3, 1764, announces:--"On Thursday last was married Mr. John Wormald, of this town, merchant, to Miss Rebecca Thompson, daughter of the late ---- Thompson, Esqr., of Staincliffe Hall, near Batley, an agreeable young lady with a fortune of upwards of £4,000." These are no uncommon instances, and almost any newspaper of the period would furnish similar examples. It was a common custom, down to about 1850, for butchers' boys, in their blue coats, and sometimes also with a large white favour, to attend in the front of houses where weddings had that day taken place, and play on their cleavers with knuckle bones; the "Butchers' Serenade" it was called. Hogarth, in his delineation of the marriage of the industrious apprentice to his master's daughter, introduces a set of butchers coming forward with marrow bones and cleavers. A bridegroom was often called upon to pay toll. It was a Somersetshire custom for the village children, on the occasion of a wedding, to fasten the churchyard gates with a wreath of evergreens and flowers; a floral bond which always required a "Silver Key" to unlose. A writer to _Notes and Queries_, in January, 1858, states that on the occasion of his marriage, some years previously, when passing through the village adjoining that in which the marriage had taken place, his carriage was stopped by the villagers, holding a band of twisted evergreens and flowers, who good naturedly refused to let the carriage pass until toll had been paid.