Theydon Mount: Folk-Lore in Essex and Herts.

I find in Morant's Essex that at Great Yeldham a house near the church was anciently
appropriated and used for dressing a dinner for poor folk when married, and had all utensil s
and furniture convenient for that purpose; this house has since been converted into a school.
At Matching, near Harlow, a house close to the churchyard was designed for the
entertainment of poor folk on their wedding-day; it seems to be very ancient, but ruinous. At
Therfield, as at Braughing, there was till lately a set of kitchen furniture lent to the poor at
weddings. Mr. Glasscock tells us that a "Church House" existed at Stortford, probably used
in a similar manner. In The famous history of Sir Billy of Billericay, published in or about
1687, I found an account of such a wedding festivity of that date.
“Now in most parts of Essex (where this wedding was kept) it is a common custom when
poor people marry to make a kind of dog hanging, or money gathering, which they call a
wedding dinner; to which they invite tag and rag, all that will come ; where after dinner, upon
the summons of the tiddler, who setteth forth his voice like a town crier, a table being set
forth, and the bride set simpering at the upper end of it; the bridegroom standing by within a
white sheet overthrown his shoulders, as if he did penance for the folly he had committed
that day whilst the people invited to it, like the soldiers of a country train band, march up to
the bride, present their money and wheel about. After this offering is over, there is a pair of
gloves laid on the table, most monstrously bedecked about with ribbons, which by way of
auction is set to sale, at who gives most, and he whose lot it is for to have them, shall withal
have a kiss of the bride.”
Such a pair of gloves, bedaubed with ribbon, hang from the ceiling of the church at Theydon
Mount.