_Throwing Old Shoes for Luck_ (Vol. vii., p. 411.).--There is an old rhyme
still extant, which gives an early date to this singular custom:
"When Britons bold,
Wedded of old,
Sandals were backward thrown,
The pair to tell,
That, ill or well
The act was all their own."
An octogenarian of my acquaintance informs me that he heard himself thus
anathematised when, leaving his native village with his bride, he refused
to comply with the extortionate demands of an Irish beggar:
"Then it's bad luck goes wid yer,
For my shoe I toss,
An ye niver come back,
'Twill be no great loss."