HISTORY OF KISSING.

Western Star, Issue 1349, 27 April 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

HISTORY OF KISSING.

The story runs that kissing was introduced into England by Eowena, the daughter of Hengist the Saxon. At a banquet that was given by the British monarch in honour of his allies, the princess, after pressing the brimming beaker to her lips, saluted the astonished and delighted Vortigern with a kiss, after the manner of her own people. So well did the kiss thrive in the genial climate of England, that, from being an occasional luxury, it became an everyday enjoyment, and the English soon became celebrated far and near as a kissing people. In fact, so far hed their celebrity spread in this respect, that when Cavendish, the biographer of the great “child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey,” visited a French nobleman at his chateau, the.; lady of the house, on entering the robin with her train of attendant maidens, for the purpose of welcoming the guest of her busbaud, thus accosted him “ Forasmuch as ye be an Englishman, whose custom it is in your country to kiss all ladies and gentlemen without offence, and although it is not so in this realm, yet will I be so bold as to kiss you, and so shall all my maidens.” Whereupon the rafter of the chateau rang again with the heartiness of the osculation, no doubt to the great satisfaction of the fair chatelaine, her many and merry maidens, and above all Cavendish himself. In the reign of Edward IV., aguestwas expected on his arrival and also on his departure, to salute not only the hostes 3 , but all the ladies of the family. In fact, no occasion was lost on which to bestow a kiss, and Shakespeare makes bluff King Hal say at Wolsey’s banquet at Hampton Court Palace, after he had danced with Anne Boleyn : “ I were unmannerly to take you and not kiss you,” From England kissing found its way to America, though the fathers of the country were too Puritanical to give the delicious pastime full swing. It was to be done decorously and in order, and woe betide the loving husband who dared to invade the sanctity of the Sabbath by kissing his wife on that sacred day,' To such a degree bad the practice of kissing attained in England that ladies were accustomed to use kiss, ing comfits, composed of ambergris and 'other ingredients, for the purpose of sweetening their breath. “ Their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are,’ says Mercu'io.

When Whitelocke was the ambassador of Oliver Cromwell to the court of (jhristina of Sweden, the queen one day, by her ladies, dined with him, and her Majesty, nothing loth, perhaps, for a lesson, commanded the ambassador to teach her suite the English mode of salutation. Whitelocke fell pu work at his pleasing task immediately, and, after a feW “coy and pretty defences ” from his pupils, soon found in them the most apt of scholars, and ready to carry out his instructions to the letter. But the custom of universal kissing jn England fell into disuse. In the tpne of those ascetic monarchs, Wi|liam £,nd Mary, it was very little practised, g,nd from that time down continued to he restricted to its proper use and employed only on proper occasions.