Lancashire Folk-lore: Illustrative of the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices, Local Customs and Usages of the People of the County PalatineHarland, John
History
Lancashire Folk-lore: Illustrative of the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices, Local Customs and Usages of the People of the County Palatine
Harland, John
Folklore -- England -- Lancashire; Lancashire (England) -- Social life and customs
On the lower declivity of Warton Crag, in the parish of Warton (which
abuts on Morecambe Bay and the Westmorland border), commanding a
beautiful and extended prospect of the bay, a seat called "The Bride's
Chair" was resorted to on the day of marriage by the brides of the
village; and in this seat they were enthroned with due solemnity by
their friends; but the origin and the object of the custom, which has
now fallen in disuse, are unknown. Not far from Warton Crag are three
rocking-stones placed in a line, about forty feet asunder, the largest
stone lying in the middle. A cave is also mentioned by Lucas, named "The
Fairy Hole," where dwarf spirits called Elves or Fairies, were wont to
resort.[192]
BURNLEY.
An ancient custom prevails at Burnley Grammar School, by which all
persons married at St. Peter's Church in that town are fined by the
boys. As soon as a wedding is fixed the parish clerk informs the boys,
and on the day appointed they depute two of their number to wait upon
the groomsman and demand a fee. There is no fixed sum named; but enough
is got to purchase books and maintain a tolerable library for the use of
the pupils. Former pupils always pay a liberal fine.
MARRIAGES AT MANCHESTER PARISH CHURCH.
"Th'owd Church," as the collegiate church of Manchester was provincially
designated before it attained the dignity of a cathedral, was known and
celebrated far and wide over the extensive parish. Its altar has
witnessed the joining together of thousands of happy [and unhappy]
couples. The fees here being less than those demanded at other churches,
which had to pay tribute to it, it was of course the most popular
sanctuary in the whole parish for the solemnization of matrimony. At the
expiration of Lent (during which the marriage fees are doubled) crowds
of candidates for nuptial honours present themselves; indeed so numerous
are they that the ceremony is performed by wholesale on Easter Monday. A
chaplain of facetious memory [the Rev. Joshua Brookes] is said to have
on one of these occasions accidentally united the wrong parties. When
the occurrence was represented to him, his ready reply was, "Pair as you
go out; you're all married; pair as you go out." This verbal certificate
appeared to give general satisfaction, and each bridegroom soon found
his right bride. Sir George Head, in his _Home Tour through the
Manufacturing Districts, in the summer of 1835_, thus describes what he
saw of these wholesale Monday marriages:--"I attended the Old Church at
Manchester one Monday morning, in order to witness the solemnization of
several marriages, which I had reason to suppose were then and there to
take place. I had heard on the preceding Sunday the banns proclaimed as
follows:--'For the first time of asking, 65; for the second time, 72;
for the third time, 60. Total, 197.' Having been informed that it would
be expedient to be on the spot at eight in the morning I repaired
thither at that hour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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