W. Pinkerton.
Ham.
It will, I fear, be difficult to discover a satisfactory answer to Lord Braybrooke's questions on these two points. They cannot certainly be traceable to a Pagan origin, for Cupid is always pourtrayed barefooted; and there is not, I believe, a single statue to be found of a sandaled Venus. I can certainly direct his Lordship to one author, a Christian author, St. Gregory of Tours, who refers to a curious practice, and seemingly one well recognised, of lovers presenting shoes, as they now do bouquets, to the objects of their affection:
"Cumqu, ut ætate huic convenit, amori se puellari præstaret affabiblem, et cum poculis frequentibus etiam calceamenta deferret."—Gregor. Turon. Ex Vitis Patrum, vol. ii. p. 449.: see also same page, note 3.
W. B. MacCabe.
Allow me to inform Lord Braybrooke that the custom of throwing a shoe, taken from the left foot, after persons for good luck, has been practised in Norfolk from time immemorial, not only at weddings, but on all occasions where good luck is required. Some forty years ago a cattle dealer desired his wife to "trull her left shoe arter him," when he started for Norwich to buy a lottery-ticket. As he drove off on his errand, he looked round to see if she performed the charm, and consequently he received the shoe in his face, with such force as to black his eyes. He went and bought his ticket, which turned up a prize of 600l.; and his son has assured me that his father always attributed his luck to the extra dose of shoe which he got.
E. G. R.
The custom of throwing an old shoe after a person departing from home, as a mode of wishing him good luck and prosperity in his undertaking, is not confined to Scotland and the northern counties, nor to weddings. It prevails more or less, I believe, throughout the kingdom. I have seen it in Cheshire, and frequently in towns upon the sea-coast. I once received one upon my shoulder, at Swansea, which was intended for a young sailor leaving his home to embark upon a trading voyage.
Edw. Hawkins.