These ceremonies were full of significance, and in observing them, the bride linked herself in the long chain which stretches back to the early stages of the world. The wedding-ring, and the choice of the third finger as being connected with the heart, are mentioned in old Egyptian literature. The blue ribbon, whether worn as a badge, or order, or at bridals, comes down from the ancient Israelites, who were bidden to put upon the borders of their fringed garments a "ribband of blue"—blue, the color of purity, loyalty, and fidelity. Bridesmaids were a relic of the ten witnesses of old Roman weddings. Bride's cake and rice, of the aristocratic Roman confarreatio. The Spanish custom of wearing fragments cut from the bride's ribbons, first introduced into England when Charles II brought home his Katharine of Portugal to be England's queen, survived in the enormous white satin rosettes (bride's favors) worn by the groomsmen, and survives to-day in the boutonnières of the bride's flowers. The old and the new symbolize her past and future—not divided, but united. The "something borrowed" signifies a pledge to be redeemed. Nothing is without significance, which accounts for the fact that all these old-time customs continue from century to century, and are so jealously observed to-day.
One of the eighteenth-century customs, has, however, been lost in the hurry and rush of our own time. The "infair," the faring into the house of the bridegroom's parents, was quite as lengthy and important a function as the wedding. This great housewarming entertainment to celebrate the reception into the bridegroom's family was an ancient English custom, religiously observed in Virginia until the middle of the nineteenth century.
The quantity of wedding-cake made in the Virginia kitchens was simply astounding! It was packed in baskets and sent all over the country to be eaten by the elders and "dreamed on" by the maidens.
What would Betty Washington and Colonel Lewis have thought of a wedding reception of an hour, and then a flitting to parts unknown, leaving the world to comfort itself with a small square of cake in a pasteboard box? Such behavior would have been little less than "flat burglary," defrauding people of their just dues.
The Hall at Kenmore, showing the Clock which belonged to Mary Washington.
Colonel Fielding Lewis, although young, was already a merchant of high standing and wealth, a vestryman, magistrate, and burgess. Kenmore, near Fredericksburg, was built for him, that his wife might be near her mother. The mansion, still kept in excellent repair, was reckoned a fine one at the time. It was built of brick and skilfully decorated by Italian artists. Betty wrote to her brother George that their "invention had given out," and invited him to contribute something. It is said that he designed the decoration illustrating Æsop's fable of the Crow and the Fox, which adorns the drawing-room mantel to-day. It is in stucco, and besides illustrating the fable of the wheedling fox who seeks to gain booty by a smooth tongue, another fable—the wolf accusing the lamb of fouling the water—is represented. The story told at Kenmore is of Italians captured in the French army as prisoners of war, who were led by choice or necessity to remain in America, where they plied their trade of decorators.
