A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    etty girls used to receive scores of letters which were dutifully embossed and contained declarations of love and yen proposals of marriage. Unfortunately, the writers ^re in the habit of omitting their signatures or of altering neir handwriting, so that the pretty maidens could only luess who they were. But sometimes a young man would larry the first girl he met on Valentine's Day, and according 0 the popular belief, such marriages were exceptionally iappy. In Wales ' trial nights ' were an accepted custom until Comparatively recent times. This meant that engaged couples were allowed to sleep together for one night, and f the trial was not satisfactory they simply parted. In the ic-ntrary case the wedding followed within a few days. 1 In Hertfordshire there was a curious custom, which persisted until the end of the eighteenth century, and which was practised on the 10th October of every seventh year. A crowd of young men assembled in the early morning in a field and elected a leader, whom they pledged themselves to follow wherever he might lead them. Followed a cross- country tramp in the course of which the young men swung everyone they met. Respectable women kept indoors on that day, and it was loose women who allowed themselves to be swung, afterwards joining the crowd of young men and staying with them till late at night. A custom that persisted in many parts of England till the beginning of the nineteenth century was the ducking of gossips in the river. Butler, in his Hudibras (seventeenth century), refers to this custom. The ducking was carried out with the aid of a ' ducking-stool', a stool with suspension ropes. There is a document in existence from the year 1572 which contains an estimate for a ducking-stool and a charge for repairs thereon, which shows that the ducking-stool was frequently used. [629]