[53]: The licence was generally shown the clergyman the day before the wedding, and an appointment made for the ceremony.
[54]: There was then, and may be now, a curious superstition that every pin about the bride must be thrown away and lost. There would be no luck if one remained. Nor must the bridesmaid keep one, for should she do so she certainly would not be married before Whitsuntide.
[55]: Pepys tells of a frolic Lady Castlemaine and the beautiful Frances Terese Stuart (the original of the Britannia on the copper coinage) had: 'That they two must be married—and married they were—with ring and all other ceremonies of Church service, and ribbands, and a sack posset in bed, and flinging the stocking.'
[56]: A mob was a déshabillé dress, scarcely ever mentioned in terms of commendation.
[57]: Guardian, No. 113.
[58]: Spectator, 479.
[59]: Daily Courant, April 9, 1706.
[60]: Trivia.
[61]: This and the following quotations are from The Funeral or Grief à la Mode, by Steele, ed. 1702.
[62]: Pope's Moral Essays, Epistle i. This is said to refer to Mrs. Oldfield, the famous actress of Anne's reign, who (vide Gentleman's Magazine for March 1731) 'was buried in Westminster Abby, in a Brussels lace Head dress, a Holland Shift, with Tucker and double Ruffles of the same Lace, and a Pair of new Kid Gloves.' 'Betty' was her old and faithful servant, Mrs. Saunders, herself an actress, taking widows' and old maids' parts.