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Ring Superstitions: Yorkshire

In 1801 a small gold ring was exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries (found in a ploughed field near Cawood, in Yorkshire) which had for a device two orpine plants joined by a true-love knot, with a motto above: 'ma fiance velt, my sweetheart wills, or is desirous. The stalks of the plants were bent to each other, in token that the parties represented by them were to come together in marriage. The motto under the ring was: Joye l'amour feu: From the form of the letters it appeared to have been a ring of the fifteenth century.

The ring conferring divination powers on the weddingcake is thus alluded to in the 'St. James's Chronicle' (1799):- Enlivening source of Hymeneal mirth, All hail the blest receipt that gave thee birth !