A Kiss at Every Meeting

Under the Tudors it was the English custom to greet with a kiss, and women took offence if they were not saluted so. Hone’s correspondent quoted Erasmus, who wrote from England that a visitor was received with a kiss by all, sent off on a journey with a kiss, and kissed all round on coming and going. He also noted that gently pulling a man’s ear had once been a sign of goodwill, as it still was in France.