Notes and Queries, Number 177, March 19, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 177, March 19, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
It will, I fear, be difficult to discover a satisfactory answer to LORD
BRAYBROOKE'S questions on these two points. They cannot certainly be
traceable to a Pagan origin, for Cupid is always pourtrayed barefooted; and
there is not, I believe, a single statue to be found of a sandaled Venus. I
can certainly direct his Lordship to one author, a Christian author, St.
Gregory of Tours, who refers to a curious practice, and seemingly one well
recognised, of lovers presenting _shoes_, as they now do _bouquets_, to the
objects of their affection:
"Cumqu, ut ætate huic convenit, amori se puellari præstaret affabiblem,
et cum poculis frequentibus etiam _calceamenta_ deferret."--Gregor.
Turon. _Ex Vitis Patrum_, vol. ii. p. 449.: see also same page, note 3.
W. B. MACCABE.
Allow me to inform LORD BRAYBROOKE that the custom of throwing a shoe,
taken from the left foot, after persons for good luck, has been practised
in Norfolk from time immemorial, not only at weddings, but on all occasions
where good luck is required. Some forty years ago a cattle dealer desired
his wife to "trull her left shoe arter him," when he started for Norwich to
buy a lottery-ticket. As he drove off on his errand, he looked round to see
if she performed the charm, and consequently he received the shoe in his
face, with such force as to black his eyes. He went and bought his ticket,
which turned up a prize of 600l.; and his son has assured me that his
father always attributed his luck to the extra dose of shoe which he got.
E. G. R.
The custom of throwing an old shoe after a person departing from home, as a
mode of wishing him good luck and prosperity in his undertaking, is not
confined to Scotland and the northern counties, nor to weddings. It
prevails more or less, I believe, throughout the kingdom. I have seen it in
Cheshire, and frequently in towns upon the sea-coast. I once received one
upon my shoulder, at Swansea, which was intended for a young sailor leaving
his home to embark upon a trading voyage.
EDW. HAWKINS.
* * * * *
OWEN GLYNDWR [OWEN AP GRIFFITH VYCHAN, LORD OF GLYNDWRDWY].
(Vol. vii., p. 205.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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