“This courtship often lasts for years, ere the swain can prevail upon his mistress to accept of his hand. Now and then a pregnancy precedes marriage, but very seldom, or never, before a mutual promise of entering into the marriage state is made. When a matrimonial contract is thus entered into, the parents and friends of each party are apprised of it, and an invitation to the wedding takes place; where, at the appointed wedding-day, every guest that dines drops his shilling, besides payment for what he drinks. The company very often amounts to two or three hundred, and sometimes more. This donation is intended to assist the young couple to buy bed-clothes, and other articles necessary to begin the world. Nor does the friendly bounty stop here: when the woman is brought to bed, the neighbours meet at the christening, out of free good-will, without invitation, where they drop their money; usually a shilling to the woman in the straw, sixpence to the midwife, and sixpence to the cook; more or less, according to the ability and generosity of the giver.
“MODE OF BURYING.
“When the parish bell announces the death of a person, it is immediately inquired upon what day the funeral is to be; and on the night preceding that day all the neighbours assemble at the house where the corpse is, which they call Ty Corph, i.e. ‘the corpse’s house.’ The coffin, with the remains of the deceased, is then placed on the stools, in an open part of the house, covered with black cloth, or, if the deceased was unmarried, with a clean white sheet, with three candles burning on it. Every person on entering the house falls devoutly on his knees before the corpse, and repeats to himself the Lord’s Prayer, or any other prayer that he chooses. Afterwards, if he is a smoker, a pipe and tobacco are offered to him. This meeting is called Gwylnos, and in some places Pydreua. The first word means Vigil; the other is, no doubt, a corrupt word from Paderau, or Padereuau, that is, Paters, or Paternosters. When the assembly is full, the parish clerk reads the common service appointed for the burial of the dead: at the conclusion of which psalms, hymns, and other godly songs are sung; and since Methodism is become so universal, some one stands up and delivers an oration on the melancholy subject, and then the company drop away by degrees. On the following day the interment takes place, between two and four o’clock in the afternoon, when all the neighbours assemble again. It is not uncommon to see on such occasions an assembly of three or four hundred people, or even more. These persons are all treated with warm spiced ale, cakes, pipes, and tobacco; and a dinner is given to all those that come from far: I mean, that such an entertainment is given at the funerals of respectable farmers. [183a] They then proceed to the church; and at the end of that part of the burial service, which is usually read in the church, before the corpse is taken from the church, every one of the congregation presents the officiating minister with a piece of money; the deceased’s next relations usually drop a shilling each, others sixpence, and the poorer sort a penny a-piece, laying it on the altar. This is called offering, and the sum amounts sometimes to eight, ten, or more pounds at a burial. The parish clerk has also his offering at the grave, which amounts commonly to about one-fourth of what the clergyman received. After the burial is over the company retire to the public-house, where every one spends his sixpence for ale; [183b] then all ceremonies are over.”
Mr. W. then proceeds to explain the good and ill resulting from the prevalence of Methodism, and those fanatics termed Ranters, &c. and states, that “the mountain people preserve themselves, in a great measure, a distinct race from the lowlanders: they but very seldom come down to the lowlands for wives; nor will the lowlander often climb up the craggy steeps, and bring down a mountain spouse to his cot. Their occupations are different, and it requires that their mates should be qualified for such different modes of living.
“I will not scruple to affirm, that these people have no strange blood in their veins,—that they are the true offspring of the ancient Britons: they, and their ancestors, from time immemorial, have inhabited the same districts, and, in one degree or other, they are all relations.”
The vale of Llanberris is bounded by the steep precipices of Snowdon, and two large lakes, communicating by a river. It was formerly a large forest, but the woods are now entirely cut down. We here dismissed our Cambrian mountaineer, and easily found our way to Dolbadern (pronounced Dolbathern) Castle, situated between the two lakes, and now reduced to one circular tower, thirty feet in diameter, with the foundations of the exterior buildings completely in ruins. In this Owen Gôch, brother to Llewellin, last prince, was confined in prison. This tower appears to have been the keep or citadel, about ninety feet in height, with a vaulted dungeon. At the extremity of the lower lake are the remains of a British fortification, called Caer cwm y Glô; and about half a mile from the castle, to the south, at the termination of a deep glen, is a waterfall, called Caunant Mawr; it rushes over a ledge of rocks upwards of twenty yards in height, falls some distance in an uninterrupted sheet, and then dashes with a tremendous roar through the impending fragments of the rock, till it reaches the more quiet level of the vale. Returning to the lakes, you have a fine view of the ruins, with the promontory on which they are situated; and that with greatly heightened effect, if favoured by their reflection on the glassy surface of the waters, to which you add the rocky heights on each side; Llanberris church relieving the mountain scenery, and the roughest and most rugged cliffs of Snowdon in the back-ground topping the whole, which give together a grand and pleasing coup-d’œil.
In this vicinity are large slate quarries, the property of Thomas Asheton Smith, Esq. and a rich vein of copper ore. These afford employ to great numbers of industrious poor: to the men, in obtaining the ore and slates, and the women and children in breaking, separating, and preparing the different sorts for exportation, or for undergoing farther preparatory processes to fit them for smelting. From hence a rugged horse-path brought us to the Caernarvon turnpike-road, about six miles distant; the high towers of the castle, the very crown and paragon of the landscape, at last pointed out the situation of
CAERNARVON;
and having crossed a handsome modern stone bridge thrown over the river Seiont, and built by “Harry Parry, the modern Inigo, A.D. 1791,” we soon entered this ancient town, very much fatigued from our long excursion.
The town of Caernarvon, beautifully situated and regularly built, is in the form of a square, enclosed on three sides with thick stone walls; and on the south side defended by the castle.