Just found this, and I've never heard of it before: can anyone verify it? It's from "Heaven and Hearth - A Seasonal Compendium of Women's Spiritual and Domestic Lore", by Beverly Pagram. (The Women's Press, London, 1997.) Except for actual quotations, it's not the sort of scholarly work that lists sources for everything, unfortunately.
Under 'June', she collects wedding traditions, and there is a piece about the contents of the bride chest - apart from the usual linens and so on. "In their marriage-chests, or 'bride-wains', many girls in medieval Britain kept lucky lace-making bobbins carved from bones from successful past wedding feasts they'd attended." Linda Walton, (in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, U.K. but in Lancashire for a week from tomorrow Hurray.) P.S. I can't resist giving you the sentence that follows the above one: "The normal contents of such a dowry-box were exquisitely embroidered clothes and sheets, but in early medieval Scandinavia brides were allowed a shield and an axe in case their husbands became violent!" (That's another one I'd love to verify.) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
