Chapter V: Part II: Marriages

ARGUMENT.

_Previous Consideration necessary: yet not too long
Delay.--Imprudent Marriage of Old Kirk and his Servant.--Comparison
between an antient and youthful Partner to a Young Man.--Prudence
of Donald the Gardener.--Parish Wedding: the compelled Bridegroom:
Day of Marriage, how spent.--Relation of the Accomplishments of
Phœbe Dawson, a Rustic Beauty: her Lover: his Courtship: their
Marriage.--Misery of Precipitation.--The Wealthy Couple: Reluctance
in the Husband; why?--Unusually fair Signatures in the Register:
the common Kind.--Seduction of Bridget Dawdle by Footman Daniel:
her Rustic Lover: her Return to him.--An Antient Couple;
Comparisons on the occasion.--More pleasant View of Village
Matrimony: Farmers celebrating the Day of Marriage; their
Wives.--Reuben and Rachel an happy Pair: an Example of Prudent
Delay.--Reflections on their State who were not so prudent, and its
Improvement towards the Termination of Life: an Old Man so
circumstanced.--Attempt to seduce a Village Beauty: Persuasion and
Reply: the Event._

THE

PARISH REGISTER.