THE LINK OF WEDLOCK.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1224, 30 October 1874, Page 3

THE LINK OF WEDLOCK.

Although a ring is absolutely necessary in a Church of England marriage, it may be of any metal and of any size. Some years since, a ring of brass was used at Worcester at a wedding before the registrar, who was threatened with proceedings for not compelling a gold one to be employed. A story is told of the wedding of two paupers who came to the church and requested to be married with the church key, as the parochial authorities had not provided them with a ring. The clerk, feeling some delicacy about using the key, fetched an old curtain ring from his own house, and with that article the marriage was celebrated. The church key was used in lieu of a wedding ring at a church near Colchester early in the present century, and that was not a solitary instance within the past one hundred years in this country. The Duke of Hamilton was married at May Pair with a bed-curtain ring. Notes aud Queries far October, IS6'O, relates that a ring of leather, cut transversely from the finger of the bridegroom's glove, was used as a substitute for the wedding ring on one occasion. A clergyman unjustifiably stopped a wedding in India because the bridegroom offered a diamond ring instead of one generally in use. In Ireland, the use of a gold ring is superstitiously required. In the Scottish Presbyterian Marriage Service the ring is not used, but it is put on by the new made bride a day or two after the ceremony.