QUEER ENGLISH MARRIAGES.

Oamaru Mail, 4 January 1877, Page 3

QUEER ENGLISH MARRIAGES.

Marriages . <7i''i.u<. (savs the //«»«»»• or in a white sheet, have from time to time been ceh brat.-d. The following is an in-itari'-e A few days ago a handsome, welt-dressed young woman came to a church in W hitehaven to be married to a man who was there with the clergyman. W hen she had advanced a little into the church, a nymph, her bndemaid, be_'ati t>> undress her. and by degrees stripped her to her shif" was she let I blooming and unadthe altar, where the marriage c> r. i. i.was performed. It seems this dr w.-d d.ng was occasioned by an emban 1 • in tht> atlairs "t ttie intended . i ' r- :■ •«hich account the girl waa ■ -o this, t!iac he might be entitled to no marriage p..riion than her smoke." ! i his h->" of "• \ ari'>ns Vidgar Errors," r.i .rid t ii' - h ii* • s the fol hi wing :—"When i :i: in tlesi.'ns to marry a woman who is in .i !>t, ir he takes her fn>:n the hands of the priest clot'-jd otdy in her shift, it is supposed that he will not be liable to her engagements. <>t this custom I have met with two examples : An extraordinary rneth'-d was adopted by a brewer's servant :n February, 17-3, to prevent his liability for the payment of t u e debts of a Mrs. Brtttam. whom he intended to marry. The lady marie fier appearance at the door of the St. Clement Danes, habited in her shift ; hence her inamorata conveyed the modest fair one to a neighboring apothecary's, where she was completely equipped with clothing purchased by him ; and in these Mrs. Britain changed her name at the church. " At Ashton Church, in Lancashire, a short time ago, a woman was pereuadeo that if she went to church naked her intended husband would nut b burdened with her debts, and actually went as a bride like Morher Eve ; but to the honor of the clorgvman, he refused the damsel Ute of wedlock." "La Lim olnshee, not