WOODLAND WEDDING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21243, 26 January 1931, Page 12

WOODLAND WEDDING.

MODERN ROBIN HOOD RITES. CAKE CUT WITH AN AXE. With all the ceremony of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry the maiden White Lion and the brave Desmos were lately married at the edge of England’s New Forest, amid the cry of “Blue Sky!” from the assembled company of lovers of Nature. Disguised under these picturesque names were Miss Dorothy Mary Revel, M.A., and Dr John Norman Glaieter, “ big chiefs” of the order. Their troth-plight-ing is probably the first woodcraft marriage since the days of Robin Hood and Maid Marion. The ceremony was performed at the Folkmoot Circle, which met in a sylvan ampitheatre. After the bride and bridegroom had entered Golden Eagle, the British chieftain, who in private life is Dr A, T. Westlake, of Bermondsey, London, began to read from the “Vise words of the founder of the order.” Golden Eagle also counselled members to follow their own native marriage customs in all cases where a contrary practice would be misunderstood and would cause pain to relatives. Desmos, who outside the precincts of the order is a consulting physician to a mental hospital at Finsbury Park, then stood forth and declared: “I will not fail to inform White Lion of anything which touches closely either her life or mine, and I solemnly declare my present intention to be faithful to her so long as I shall live.” White Lion, wearing a I aced-up jacket, knee-length skirt, and sandals, with a wreath on her brow, said: “I wish to declare my love for him, and my intention to keep the truth between him and me and to be faithful to him as long as I shall live.” The Grand Keeper of the Fire, Edwin Shepherd, prayed, and afterwards, while the Grand Gleemen sang, the certificate of espousals was signed. The wedding feast followed in the forest, the wedding cake being cut with a woodcraft axe. The bride and bridegroom left later with camping kit for a stay in the New Forest. The forest ceremony followed a legal ceremony. The order —to which Miss Kitty Trevelyan (Minnehaha), the daughter of Sir Charles Trevelyan, Secretary of State for Education, belongs—was started in the United States.