3. The following matrimonial custom prevails at Wellow or Welley, as it is called, a village in the heart of the county. The account is copied from the Notts Guardian of April 28, 1853:
"Wellow. It has been a custom from time immemorial in this parish, when the banns of marriage are published, for a person, selected by the clerk, to rise and say 'God speed them well,' the clerk and congregation responding, Amen! Owing to the recent death of the person who officiated in this ceremony, last Sunday, after the banns of marriage were read, a perfect silence prevailed, the person chosen, either from want of courage or loss of memory, not performing his part until after receiving an intimation from the clerk, and then in so faint a tone as to be scarcely audible. His whispered good wishes were, however, followed by a hearty Amen, mingled with some laughter in different parts of the church."
I do not know whether any notices of the above have appeared in "N. & Q.," and send to inquire respecting 1. and 3. whether a similar custom holds elsewhere; and whether 2. has any connexion with the disused practice of cock-shying?
Furvus.
Minor Notes.
A Centenarian Couple.—The obituary of Blackwood's Magazine for August, 1821, contains the following:
"Lately, in Campbell, County Virginia, Mr. Chas. Layne, sen., aged 121 years, being born at Albemarle, near Buckingham county, 1700. He has left a widow aged 110 years, and a numerous and respectable family down to the fourth generation. He was a subject of four British sovereigns, and a citizen of the United States for nearly forty-eight years. Until within a few years he enjoyed all his faculties, and excellent health."
The above extract is followed by notices of the deaths of Anne Bryan, of Ashford, co. Waterford, aged 111; and Wm. Munro, gardener at Rose Hall, aged 104.
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.