from: Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, Saturday 22 January 1859, page 3
Novel Wedding: The Haverfordwest Telegraph gives an amusing account of a singular wedding, which took place at the village of Thornes Chapel, and anticipation of which had thrown the neighbourhood into a state of excitement. The peculiarity of the match was the great inequality of stature of the supposed bride and bridegroom. The former, if dressed in male attire, would be considered, as far as height in concerned, a tall man, while the latter scarcely stands three feet high.
The bridegroom endeavoured to keep the time of their leaving for church, as secret as possible, in order to avoid any disturbance that might be made on the occasion; and in order the more effectually to accomplish s purpose, he determined to start very early in the morning. But as secrets are seldom very long before they are made public, the time of starting was soon ascertained by a few persons who are fond of a lark.
Accordingly, about 5am, the happy prepared to start for Amroth Church, having about four miles to walk. They proceeded a little way alone, and were no doubt congratulating themselves know well they had deceived their neighbours, when all of a sudden, they were astonished at hearing the report of a gun fired near them, and then immediately after, as if by magic, they were saluted by about fifty persons bearing lighted torches and candles, who had come from different parts of the neighbourhood, to welcome the happy pair, in quite an Oriental fashion. Now great excitement prevailed, and amidst the shouting of the multitude, which gathered strength as they went along, the bride and bridegroom were escorted along their way.
About midway between their residence and the church, the party were met by a band of fifes and drums, which put “new life and mettle in their heels,” and by this time the crowd had increased to about three hundred persons, who accompanied the happy couple nearly all the way to the church door. The noise and uproar of the crowd were so great that it was thought by some persons that the same catastrophe had again happened as occurred at Fishguard, some years since; but having found out their mistake, they heartily joined in the sport. But everything must have an end, and so must mirth.
Having reached the church, and the hymeneal knot being tied, the crowd dispersed, and one and all wended their way homewards as best they could.
*Please note: Punctuation and paragraphs have been added to the above transcription for ease and speed of reading.
Source:
1859 NOVEL WEDDING, The Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser,Saturday 22 January 1859, Page 3. Retrieved on 20 December 2023, from British Newspaper Archive
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