SOME CURIOUS WEDDING RINGS

Te Aroha News, Volume V, 3 December 1887, Page 3

SOME CURIOUS WEDDING RINGS

These symbols have not always been manufactured from the preciou.s metal gold. We are told that in lieu of a ling the church key has often been u^ed ; and Walpole tells of an instance where a cartain ring was employed. The Duke of Hamilton fell .-o violently in love with the younger of the celebrated Misses Gunning, at a party in Lord Chesterfield's house, that two day* after he sent for a parson to perform the marriage ceremony ; but as the duke had neither license nor ring the clergyman refused to act. Nothing daunted, Hamilton declared he " would send for the Archbishop.' 5 At Jast they were manietl with a ring of the bed curtain, at half past twelve at night, at Mayfair Chapel. Forgetful bridegrooms have been reduced to greater straits than this even ; in one instance a leather ring had, on the spur of the moment, to be cut out of a piece of kid, from the bride's glove. A tragic story of a forgotten wedding ring is told in the '• Lives of the LincUeys." When he should have been at church, Colin Lindsey, the young Earl of Bal caries, was quietly eating his breakfast in nightcrown and slippers ; when reminded that Mauritia of Nassau was waiting for him at the altar, he hurried to church, but forgot the ring ; a friend present gave him one, which he, without looking ai, placed on the bikle's finger. After the ceremony was over, the Countes3 glanced at her hand and beheld a grinning death's head on her ring. She fainted away, and the omen made such an impression on her that on recovering she de lared that she was destined to die within a year ; a presentiment that probably brought about its own fulfilment, for in a tew months the careless Colin was a widower.