Creeling the bridegroom

At Galashiels, the morning after a wedding, the neighbours brought a creel filled with stones and fixed it to the bridegroom’s back. He had to run round the town with it, watched to make sure he did not drop it, until his wife came after him and kissed him. A shy wife, or one who wanted some sport, could make him carry it a long way. The custom ended at Galashiels about 1800 when a man who had been married twice before stayed in bed and refused to be creeled.