The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-22 00:00:00

MARRIAGES AT MANCHESTER.

I attended the Old Church at Manchester one morning, to
witness the solemnization of several marriages I had reason
to suppose were then and there to take place. I had heard
on the preceding Sunday the banns proclaimed as follows :
" For the first time of asking, sixty-live. For the second
time, seventy-two. For the third time, sixty. Total, one
hundred and ninety-seven.
Having been informed that it would be expedient to be on
the spot at eight in the morning, I repaired thither at that
hour. Operations, however, did not commence before ten.
The latter is the usual time of proceeding to business, al-
though, in cases of persons married by license, eight o'clock
is the hour. •

A full quarter of an hour before the striking of the clock,
two beadles, in their parish liveries, had taken ground oppo-
site the church door, and a sufficient number of persons
(chiefly young women) had assembled, whose curious and
anxious looks testified that something extraordinary was
about to take place. By this time also suspicious looking
persons, in pairs, bad begun to arrive on foot, hose coun-
tenances were scrutinized without mercy by the loiterers.
As the church door was not open, everybody waited to be let
in. The couples were all poor people, and as to the brides
and bridegrooms, as few were dressed in special costume,
and all were very generally attended by friends and relatives,
it was not easy to say which was which. One party arrived
at the church door belonging evidently (as everything ia this
world goes by comparison) to the higher classes, and though
dragged by one solitary horse, they made an elfut t to Out-
shine. The carriage was a narrow vis-a-vis fly, intended for
two persons, though it now contained four, besides a fat man
with bushy whiskers (probably the bride's brother) on the
box with tile coachman. Within, packed as closely as they
could possibly sit, on one side were the two bride's maids.
Opposite sat the bride and bridegroom ; the latter a spruce
sandy-haired young man, looking flushed and eager. One
of his arms was round the waist of the young lady, on whom
he bestowed glances of the very tenderest description. In
fact, attitude and all considered, I hardly knew whether to
compare him in my mind to the statue of Cupid regarding
his Psyche, or a Scotch terrier watching at a rat hole. Tie
coachman and his companion wore-white favours. the for-
mer, meditating effect, inflicted some smart strokes of the
whip on the horse, intending to bring him on his haunches
with a jerk ; but the poor jaded animal, evidently over-driven,
had sense enough to anticipate the object proposed, aed
stopped dead short a few paces before, by which both men
on the box were very nearly pitched over his head. The
people sat in the fly till the church door was opened, and
then the ladies got out and tripped across the pavement into
the church. They wore short petticoats, and white satin
bonnets, scooped out in the hind-part, with sugar-loaf crowns,
and their back hair underneath combed upwards.
When all was ready and the church-floors opened, the
clergyman and clerk betook themselves to the vestry, and
the people who were about to be married and their friends
seated themselves in the body of the church, opposite the
communion-table, on benches •which were placed there for
the purpose. Not less than fifty people
were assembled,
among whom I took my seat quietly without being noticed.
The party who hod arrived upon wheels, most exel"sivelY
paraded, in the meantime, up and down (as if unwilling to
identify themselves with the humbler candidates for matri-
mony) in another part of the church. The people at first
took their seats in solemn silence, each one inquisitively
surveying his neighbour, but as the clergyman and clerk were
some time in preparation, the men first began to whisper one
to another, and the women to titter, till by degrees they threw
off their reserve, and made audible remarks on the new
corners. There was little mauvaise honte among the women,
but of the men, poor fellows ! some were seriously abashed ;
while among the hymenial throng there seemed to prevail a
sentiment that obtains pretty generally among their betters,
namely, the inclination to put shy people out of conceit with
themselves. Thus at the advance of a sheepish-looking
bridegroom, he was immediately assailed on eli sides with,
" Come in, man, what art afraid of? Nobody'll hurt thee;"
and then a general laugh went round in a reptes!ed tone, but
quite sufficient to confound and subdue the new corner.
Presently a sudden buzz broke out—"'rite clergyman's
coming !" and all was perfectly silent. .Ahout twelve couples
were there to be married, the rest were friends and attendants.
The former were called upon to arrange themselves altogether
round the altar. The clerk was an adept in his business, and
performed the office of his business in a mode admirably cal-
culated to set the people at their ease, and direct the pro-
ceedings. In appointing 'them to their prtioropehrly soft avid
place, be !ad-
dressed each in an intonation of voice pa
soothing, and which carried with it the more Qi encourage-
meat as he made use of no appellative but the Christian name
of the person spoken to, Thus he proceeded " Daniel and
Phoebe : this way, Daniel ; take ofr your gloves, Daniel.
William and Anne ; no, Anne : here, :Anne ; t'other side,
'William. John and Mary here, John ; oh, John ; gently,
John." And then addressing them all together : " Now all
of you give your hats to some person to hold." Although
the marriage service appeared tome to be generally addressed
to the whole party, the clergyman was scrupulously exact
in obtaining the accurate responses from each individual.
No difference was shown towards the exclusive party, other
than by being placed on the extreme left.—Head's Home
Tour.

LONGEVITY.—There arc four persons now living who were
in the service of Walter Fawkes, Esq. the grandfather of F.
H. Fawkes, Esq. of Farnley hall, whose united egos amount
to upwards of 300 years.—Leeds Intelligencer.