A RAG AND BONE MAN'S WEDDING IN KENSINGTON.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 155, 2 December 1874, Page 3

A RAG AND BONE MAN'S WEDDING IN KENSINGTON.

The marriage of George Clapson, of Kensington place, Warwick street, Earl's court, and Miss Esther Snell, of Brick lane, Whitechapel, was solemnized on Monday morning in the Parish church, and the occasion brought together one of the most disgraceful assemblies that it has ever been our lot to witness. The church was crowded with people anxious to witness the ceremony, which for a time was delayed by the unruly and unseemly behaviour of those jjresent in the sacred edifice. The chief actors in the play, for it deserves no other name, were the bride and bridegroom, who follow the enviable calling of rag and bone dealers in their respective localities, and evidently a very prosperous calling it must be, for three carriages and pairs of greys brought the wedding party to the church, the retinue being composed of broughams (a la Westminster) and their occupants in fancy dresses, donkey barrows adorned with paper flags of various colours, Ethopians, clowns (a goodly number), and other human absurdities following in the rear. We shall hurry over the ceremony in the church, where the bridegroom of sixty summers was supported by the bride of twenty, his tottering frame evidently under the influence and the effects of a too frequent worship at the shrine of Bacchus. How ever the register was signed we kiow not ; but emerging from the" church the bridal party, accompanied by a large black dog—decorated with red, white and blue round its body, a white night-cap on its head, and a white favor fixed on its tail—was the signal for a repetition of yelling and hooting, which heralded their arrival. The carriages at last got away with their occupants, and proceeded to a public-house adjacent to the future residence of Mrs Clapson, where a scene of the wildest excitement prevailed throughout the day and evening. Impromptu decorations of dirty wall paper were strung together and hung across the streets, bearing the words in letters of white-wash, "Welcome to George and Esther." Flags of unknown colours, illustrations and caricatures abounded whichever way the eye turned. The streets in the immediate neighbourhood being thronged with a noisy set the whole evening, great difficulty was cxperiened by the police in keeping anything like decent order. The '' open house " in question being closed at last, the assemblage dispersed, and we trust that the chief personages in this disgraceful affair will sink into the oblivion they deserve.