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Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries and Antiquarian Gleaner (3); An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine
Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries and Antiquarian Gleaner An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine - 3 Author:John Spencer Volume: 3 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1895 Original Publisher: J. and T. Spencer Subjects: Leicestershire (England) Rutland (England) History / Europe / Great Britain Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When y... more »ou buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 292. -- Riding for the Bridecake. -- A custom formerly prevailed in the parish of Claybrooke, in Leicestershire, of "riding for the bridecake," which took place when the bride was brought home to her new habitation. A pole was erected in front of the house, three or four yards high, with the cake placed upon the top of it. On the instant the bride set out from her old habitation, a party of young men set off on horseback, and he who was fortunate enough to reach the pole first, and knock down the cake with his stick, had the honour of receiving it from the hands of a damsel, on the point of a wooden sword; and with this trophy he returned in triumph to meet the bride and her attendants, who upon their arrival in the village were met by another party, whose office it was to adorn their horses' heads with garlands, and to present the bride with a posy. The last ceremony of this character took place in the parish of Claybrooke so far back as 1747. Sometimes the bridecake was competed for by persons on foot, and then it was called " throwing the qu1ntail," which was performed with heavy bars of iron, thus affording a trial of muscular strength as well as of gallantry. Another custom prevailed in this village at weddings, that of sending to a disappointed lover a garland, made of willow, richly decked with flowers, and sometimes accompanied with a pair of gloves, a white handkerchief, and a smelling bottle. London. W. Sydney, F. R. H. S. in Dec., 1694, espoused, during th...« less