when it became known that a gentleman and lady had been compelled to retire from the hymeneal altar with the nuptials unperformed. The cause of the disappointment – for who can doubt that it was one? – appears not to have arisen from any want of punctuality on the part of the clergyman, nor from the non-attendance of the parties, either principal or accessory; nor, so far as we have been able to learn, had the banns been forbidden, or the jeweller neglected to supply the golden token wherewith to ratify the bond. We believe that the tailor and the dressmaker had both performed their part of the preparation in due time, and we know that the bridal cake had been sent home, and that the traveling habiliments of the affianced lady were awaiting their fair proprietress at the railway station. What then could have happened to mar a consummation so devoutly to be wished? Let not the cynic – remembering the failure of previous negotiations – attempt to suggest an answer that savors(sic) at all of faint-heartedness. Love is a fickle boy, we know; but, in the present instance he appears to have been even too faithful. He had twanged his bow and shot home his arrows with such unerring precision as to take captive not only the heart but the head, also, of the youthful (?) bridegroom, so that when the latter was politely requested to produce the legal document known as the license, our love-stricken hero was found to have forgotten it. Oh! what a bewilderment! what heart-burnings! what sorrowing reflections! Could nothing be done in this trying emergency? Yes, and ‘twas worth a trial. The telegraph wires were set in motion and a legal gentleman was despatched to Lewes to rectify the informality. But it was all too late for that day. The marriage shop takes precedence of all early-closing establishments, and as the business could not be effected within the prescribed limits the parties were compelled to retire, minus the ceremony which was to have made the two principals man and wife. Malicious people said it was a sell, but that could not have been, seeing that the “bill of sale” had not arrived. We rather think it was quite as much a sell on the following morning, when a crowd of persons, taking their cue from some mysterious whisper, assembled at the church two hours before it was intended to renew the attempt to perform the sacred rite. “Our births and marriages column” (says the St. Leonards Gazette) “will tell the rest”.
Miss E. L. MacGregor’s Marriage.
One of those events which in all stations of life is ever invested with a halo of special interest occurred at St. Leonards on the 29th of April when the pretty and accomplished Miss Emily Louisa MacGregor was led to the hymeneal altar by Augustus Arthur Currie, Esq., Captain in the Bengal Army. The fair betrothed was the seventh daughter of the late James MacGregor, Esq. (M.P. for Sandwich), and of Mrs. MacGregor, a resident at 9 Warrior square. The bridal party of nearly 40 persons were conveyed in ten carriages to the church of St. Mary Magdalen, where the nuptial rites were performed by the Rev. W. W. Hume, assisted by the Rev. G. W. Pennethorne, the latter a brother-in-law of the bride. Omitting -
