UNUSUAL WEDDING

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1932, Page 3

UNUSUAL WEDDING

AT FOREST CAMP FIRE. 1 ■ LONDON, July 6. A wedding ceremony was performed a few weeks ago by the side' of a. camp fire in the pine-surrounded glade of Sandy Balls Wood, on’the edge of the New Forest, near Fordingbridge, Hampshire. * Tli© bride was Miss Elizabeth Pears, and her groom.Mr Harold Bing, member of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry. Dr. Aubrey T. Wektlake, of Bermondsley, owner of the wood's, presided over the rites. H r father, the late Mr El-nest WestlaKs, 1 -purchased the estate as a nature sanctuary, the chief camping-ground of’ the-Order, which he founded in 1916, and as a home for the Forest School which hr : been estahlidiecT since his dtitii. Mr ’Westlake’s body rests beneath a mound in the midst of the woods at a point commanding. si* view of the' Avon Valiev, .and overlooking his native town of FordingVidge. -v/me y/: The ceremony in gereral followed, the ritual of the Order-, eoitihiired “with the .formalities observed at- >; martiage. between members of the SHciety of Friends. The guests ground • the fire,'the groom and his supporterl- - the circle; from the- north, and the bride and her friends from the south. . -

! Alter a period of “open silence.” as nr°etised by the Quakers, the president announced the cireumdnnees of the wedding. The bride and her groom advanced toward the fire, pligbtmg their troth, and making mutual declarations of their intention to livtoErether. A ring was placed on the bride’s- finder, and documents were ■signed and witnessed.