Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-12-17
GROOM'S BEST MAN."
The Custom Of Attendance is One Of
Scottish Origin.

1t may be surprise to some people
to know that the phrase best man
the bridegroOms nearest ATTENDANTS
of Scottish origin. In the North, ALSO
the principal bridesmaid used to be
called the best maid" Neither eX-
preston has much to recommend it. 1t
is great pity, indeed. that best man."
an inelegant and in itself meaningless
phrase, should have so completely GUST
ed from our common everyday speech
the good old English name of bride
man. or "bridesman." Another old
name is "groomsman," and in days
gone by the bridegroom was attended,
not by one friend, but by several. who
We're known as the bridemen or
groomsmen. The term best man.
came into use, presumably, to indicate
the one of these who took the lead in
performing their various duties, and
was in closest attendance on the BRIDE
groom. In recent years the custom of
having groomsmen has been OCCASION
ally revived, but it has not become gen.
eral At fashionable wedding, four
or five years ago, the bride was con-
tent with five bridesmaids and two
pages, whereas the bridegroom was
supported by no fewer than nine
grOOmSmen.
But at the present time such an ar
ray has by no means the same meaning.
nor are those attendant friends of so
much use as in days of old. The fore
runner of the brakeman was the BRIDE
leader whose duty it was to bring the
bride to the bridegroom. In most cOun-
tries where the real or pretended cap
ture of the bride was an essential part
of the ceremony. and wherever traces
of the very ancient custom of bride
ca ptl,re existed. the friend or friends of
the bridegroom had the important Office
of capturing the lady and bringing her
to her lord. In one of Dryden's plays
there is the line: "Betwixt her guards
she seemed by bridemen led" and
Brand tells us that at many old Eng
l;sh weddings the bridegroom was led
to the church between two maids. and
the bride by two young men, holding
her by the arms as if unwilling. This
was evidently survival of the idea of
capture.
The same idea somewhat more dis
guised, can be traced in the custom
which was not unknown at Old-faSh-
toned weddings less than century ago,
in the north of England and in the
west of Scotland of the bridegroom's
best man" escorting the bride to the
church. It has been disputed, natur-
ally, whether the groOmS nearest
friend was chosen as escort with the
idea of protecting the lady from seizure
by others. or whether he might be re-
garded as the leader in the act of cap
ture But whichever idea lay at the
back of the practice, it was clearly
survival connected with the custom of
marriage by capture. Later, the
bridemen had various functions to per-
form which have now become obsolete.
There was still trace of the capture
idea in the old duty at one time as
signed to the brakeman Of giving the
bride away. He led her to the church
and then acted the part now filled by
the lady's father or other near male
relative. a
In the old seventeenth Century bal
lad Of the Golden Glove" which used
TO be great favorite at rural gather
ings in all parts of the country in the
old. unsophisticated days. before the
melancholy monstrosities Of the mod
ern music hall had driven the gendine
old English ballads and songs out of
use and meinory-in this ballad there
are the lines which ailude to the GUS
tom named