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Ring Superstitions: England
The Lord sat in England A drinking the wine.
I wish a may be weel Wi' my lady at hame; For the rings of my fingers They're now burst in twain.
In the 'State Trials' (vol. xiv., Case of Mary Norkott and John Okeman) is a curious instance of superstition connected with the marriage-ring. It was a case of murder, and the victim, at the touch of the person accused of the crime, 'thrust out the ring or marriage-finger three times, and pulled it in again, and the finger dropped blood upon the grass.' Sir Nicholas Hyde said to the witness: 'Who saw this beside you?' The answer was: 'I cannot swear what others saw; but, my Lord, I do believe the whole company saw it, and if it had been thought a doubt, proof would have been made of it, and many would have attested with me.' The breaking of a ring was of ominous import. Atkinson, in his 'Memoirs of the Queen of Prussia,' says: 'The betrothal of the young couple (Frederic and Sophia Charlotte, first King and Queen of Prussia) speedily followed. I believe it was during the festivities attendant upon this occasion that a ring worn by Frederic, in memory of his deceased wife, with the device of clasped hands, and the motto " à jamais," suddenly broke, which was looked upon as an omen that this union, likewise, was to be of short duration.' The breaking of a wedding-ring is still regarded in some parts of England as an import that its wearer will soon be a widow. A correspondent of 'Notes and Queries' found this superstition current in Essex a few years ago. A man had been murdered in that county, and his widow said: 'I thought I should soon lose him, for I broke my weddingring the other day, and my sister lost her husband after breaking her ring. It is a sure sign'!
It was an olden superstition that the bending of the leaves to the right or to the left of the orpine plants, or Midsummer men, as they were called (Telephium), would never fail to tell whether a lover was true or false. In an old poem, the 'Cottage Girl,' we find :- Oft on the shrub she casts her eye, That spoke her true love's secret sigh; Or else, alas, too plainly told Her true love's faithless heart was cold.