Memoirs of the Verney Family (Volume 2); Memoirs of the Verney Family During the Civil War, by Frances Parthenope Verney (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1892. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV. THE 'MACHES' OF THE FIVE GIRLS. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a flying, And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying. . . . Then be not coy, but use your time, And while ye may, go marry; For having lost but once your prime You may for ever tarry.--Herkick. The passion of love, as it was understood by the knights of old in their high-flown protestations to their ' ladye loves, ' and which in the modern threevolume novel gives the keynote to all intercourse between man and woman, hardly existed at this time with regard to marriage, which was usually a purely commercial proceeding--so much 'portion' against so much income. The love of husbands and wives, of parents to their children, was extremely strong, but the ordinary falling in love of young men and maidens is not thought of much importance. 'I mean to marry my daughter to 2,000 a year, ' writes Sir John Bacchus to Sir Ralph, quite openly. A man was a mere appendage to the fortune; children, as generally considered, were only pawns used to advance the position and the wealth of the parents. In the usual way the bargaining was done by friends and relations, but if there were none of these available, the young lady did it herself, and Mary Villiers writes to a pretendant to her hand: 'The distracted times affrights me from thinking of mariing; . . . wheras you desired mee to make enquiere of you and your estate, I cannot hear of any you have at all; and I would have you know without an estate I will never marry you. nor no man living, and such an estate as my friends like of.'l After Sir Edmund's death Lady Sussex writes toRalph: 'I am afraid in these bad times you will not mach your sisters as you desire, ' but on the whole, as far as money and position...