Note 39 — Chapter III · MARRIAGE.

Supposing the vexed question of settlements or no settlements disposed of, a thing of primary importance before marriage was to provide the ring, and that, according to the custom of the day, must have a posy on it.[39] 'He has likewise promised me to get the measure of his Mistress's marriage finger, with a design to make a posy in the fashion of a ring which shall exactly fit it.' The posy was mostly a couplet—and as not much sentiment or poetry can be compressed into two lines, the posies, as far as we can judge, are not very brilliant efforts of genius. The appended examples are all genuine of the time, as they are taken from the newspaper advertisements of things lost.