F. B. W.
The Sposalizio, or "espousals," or betrothing, is certainly a different ceremony from the marriage. Is not the fact of young ladies popularly considering and calling the third finger of the right hand the engaged finger, and wearing a ring on that finger when engaged, a confirmation of your correspondent's idea, that at this "betrothal" or "espousals" (compare the phrase "his espoused wife" of Mary before her marriage with Joseph) the ring was placed in the right hand; at the marriage ceremony on the left?
Sc.
WINDFALL.
(Vol. vii., p. 285.)
W. W. is desirous of interpreting windfall, as necessarily from its origin denoting a gain. He is, perhaps, expecting a handsome bequest; I wish he may get it; but he may rely on it that the windfall of the bequest will be accompanied by the windfall of the "Succession Act." Let us hear what our great Doctor says; his first explanation is, "Fruit blown down from the tree."
W. W.'s little boys and girls would deem a windfall of unripe apples, at this time of the year, a good; they will make a pie for dinner. W. W. himself would call it an evil; the ripe crop is ruined.
But let us see how Johnson illustrates his explanation:
"Their boughs were too great for their stem, they became a windfall upon the sudden."—Bacon, Essay 29.