The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-16
GROOM'S "BEST MAN.
CUSTOM OF REPENTANCE IS OF
 SCOTTISH ORIGIN.
HI. Were Onerous Duties in oIden Times-He Gave the Bride Away and Passed the Cake and Cups.

---~ bridegroom's nearest attendant-is of Scottish origin. In the North, also, the principal bridesmaid used to be called the "hest maid.' Neither expression has much to recommend it. It is great pity, indeed, that ''best man." an unintelIigent and in itself meaningless phrase, should have so completely oust- 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 several, who were known as the bridemen or grooms- men. 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 bridegroom. In re- cent years the custom of having groomsmen has been occasionally re- vived. but it has not become general At fasional wedding, four or five years ago. the bride was content with five bridesmaids and two pages, whereas the bridegrooms was supported by no fewer than nine groomsmen.
 But at the present time such an array has by no means the same meaning, nor are those attendant friends of so much use. as in days of old. The forerunner of the brakeman was the brideleader, whose duty it was to bring the bride to the bridegroom. In most countries where the real or pretended capture of the bride was an essential part of the ceremony and wherever traces of the very ancient custom of bride capture 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 any old English wedding 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 a 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, naturally whether the groom's nearest friend was chosen as escort with the idea of pro tecting the lady from seizure by others, or whether he might be regarded as the leader in the act of capture. But whichever idea lay at the back of the practice, it was clearly survival con- nected with the custom of marriage by capture. Later, the bridemen had various functions to perform which have now become obsolete. There was still trace of the capture idea in the old duty at one time assigned to the brideman of giving the bride away. He led her to the church and then acted the part now filled by the ladys father or other near male relative.
 Tn the old seventeenth century ballad of the "Golden Glove" which used to be a great favorite at rural gatherings in all parts Of the country in the old, unsosphisticated days, before the melancholy monstrosities of the modern music hall had driven the genuine old Englishballads and songs out of use and memory. in this ballad there are the lines which aliude to the custom named
 s'Thought you had been at the wed-
 ding" she cried
 ITO wait on the square and give him his bride.'
 .sAnd it has been pointed out that the same custom may be hinted at in the marriage service rubric-"The minister receiving the woman at her fathers or friends hands"
 Among the Shropshire peasantry in quite recent years something of the old custom seems to have prevailed. Miss Burne in her delighted book on "Shorp- shire Folklore" says that at weddings in humble life the brides father is sell dom and her mother never present. As a rule. the only companions to church of the bride and groom are the best man and the bridesmaid. In such cir
  must be given away by her lovers friend, on whose arms she has walked to church. A still more curious thing is that it is considered lucky Miss Burne tells us for either the best man br the bridesmaid to be already mar ried. q have really seen,' she writes, a married woman acting as bride rnaidi" Less than twenty years ago a Newport newspaper, describing a vil- lase wedding, said that MT. and Mrs So-and-so, of -, accompanied the happy couple and performed the offices of best man and bridesmaid, respective ly.''
 Another old function of the bridemen or bridesquires, as they were some times called. was to carry round the cake and the bridebowl. The bride bowl. or sup, was handed round at a wedding, so that the friends might drink the health of the newly married pair-a kind of loving-cup ceremony But before the proceedings had reached this pleasant point it had been the duty of the bridemen to lift the bride over the threshold. This is an ancient and widespread custom, the meaning of which has caused much shedding of ink. In the West of Scotland, of old says Mr. Napier, in his book on the folklore of that region, ''the threshold of the house was disenehanted by of1 and I,xr anoi1,fir1cr with oar-