Interesting words and vignettes from the book of ' Forgotten English'

I recently purchased Forgotten English by Jeffrey Kacirk. It's filled with fascinating vignettes.
For example: Amober – Medieval Welsh legal term for a "maiden fee" imposed by the lord of a manor as compensation for forfeiting his right of primae noctis, literally the "first night." Under this custom, know as cuillage in medieval Scotland, he was entitled to the right of "first refusal" with any woman in his employment on her wedding night. If her husband wished to avoid this outrageous insult, he was often forced to pay an amober.
Hazlitt wrote that during the late thirteenth-century reign of Edward I, to add insult to injury, "in Cornwall it was then a manorial custom ...that she should find surety to the lord o the said manor to return to it after the death of her husband, if he predeceased her." Another annoyance face by newlyweds was a delay imposed by the Church during medieval times until their bed was "properly blessed." The new married couples were made to wait till midnight after the marriage day, before they would pronounce a benediction, unless handsomely paid for it, and they durst not undress without it, on pain of excommunication.