May Marriages.—It so happened that yesterday I had both a Colonial Bishop and a Home Archdeacon taking part in the services of my church, and visiting at my house; and, by a singular coincidence, both had been solicited by friends to perform the marriage ceremony not later than to-morrow, because in neither case would the bride-elect submit to be married in the month of May. I find that it is a common notion amongst ladies, that May marriages are unlucky.
Can any one inform me whence this prejudice arose?
ALFRED GATTY.
Ecclesfield, April 29. 1850.
[This superstition is as old as Ovid's time, who tells us in his Fasti,
"Nec viduæ tædis eadem, nec virginis apta
Tempora. Quæ nupsit non diuturna fuit.
Hac quoque de causa (si te proverbia tangunt),
Mense malas Maio nubere vulgus ait."