Who Will You Marry? - English Divinations Quiz

Answer: keep them upright in your bedroom overnight

This superstition is mentioned in Francis Kilvern's diary in 1873. Midsummer-men are the flowers of the sedum plant which grows wild on rocky footpath edges. Sadly, they they are far from common these days, but there are sedums sold in garden centers for rockeries, so perhaps they would do.

Answer: Read the letter the peel makes; it is the initial of his name.

I remember doing this as an 18-year-old student. We had great fun trying to read the letters, although we did not believe it. Oddly enough, though, ten years later my husband's initial was R, which was what was foretold. And another very curly Gothic style E was right for a girl who married Eric. I never heard if any of the others came true.

Answer: Your future husband will walk in the door.

Thomas Hardy wrote about this superstition in his novel "Under the Greenwood Tree". I remember hearing people claim they used to do this, but no one ever admitted to achieving the end result. Incidentally, the man need not walk in the door himself; it might very well be his "shade" which is supposed to be the form similar to a ghost of a living person that comes.

Answer: Open the book at random and stab with your finger to find the relevant word.

This is a long held tradition. It is difficult to manage, though, because the answer is liable to be very cryptic. It is often only after the question has resolved itself that any connection with the quotation becomes evident.

Answer: a rose

It is quite true that a rose can be kept till Christmas if stored in the right conditions of dry darkness. I have seen a whole arrangement of roses at Christmas that were preserved this way. The ritual is that the girl must take the rose and wear it over her bosom.

She must than obtain a compliment from the man of her choice. Once he has done this he is doomed. Sometime during the coming year, he will propose to her. Well, who knows?

Answer: Saint Catherine

The traditional rhyme goes -
"St Catherine, St Catherine, lend me your aid
And grant that I may not die an old maid.
A husband, St Catherine,
A good one, St Catherine,
But any one better than
Not a one, St Catherine.

Sweet St Catherine,
A husband St Catherine
Handsome, St Catherine.
Rich, St Catherine.
SOON, St Catherine."

Answer: in your sleeve

Pins were once sold in papers. They were stuck in neat rows about six inches long and several deep. When goods were sold for a sum ending in eleven-pence-three-farthings, the shop keeper would often give a single row of pins for the one farthing change.

Answer: the trade their future husband would follow

This is one of the superstitions that Thomas Hardy wrote about. This time it was in "The Woodlanders". He only mentions it in passing, but when I lived in Dorset I met an old spinster who claimed she had performed the ritual and next morning her mother had complained that the milkman was "dratted late".

She claimed that that made her determined not to wed - she had no wish to get up in the middle of the night to see a husband off to work. Well, it was a better excuse than admitting that she had never had a proposal because she was known for a foul temper.

Answer: shoes

The rhyme goes like this -
"I pin my garters to the wall,
And put my shoes in the shape of a T
In hopes my true-love for to see,
Not in fine apparel nor in fine array,
But in the clothes he wears each day.
If I am his bride to be.
If I am his clothes to wear,
If I am his child to bear,
I hope he'll turn his face to me.
But if I'm not his clothes to wear,
If I'm not his child to bear,
I hope he'll turn his back to me."

This is a bit ambiguous. A truelove was actually a man who had committed himself to you, so I suppose it could mean that, if he turned his back, even if he was currently your truelove, you would never actually marry him.

Answer: February 29th

As this came only once every fourth year, some girls determined to get the most out of it. If a girl planned to do this, she should have worn a scarlet petticoat. If the man refused the proposal, she should lift her skirt just high enough to prove that she was wearing one, and then demand that he provide her with a silk dress that would cover it. You might therefore assume that by accosting several men in turn, a clever girl could acquire a complete new wardrobe, with the only danger being that one of them might accept her!