CUSTOMS AND MANNERS
OF
THE WELSH.
Ancient manners are less obliterated by time and the varying modes of life in North Wales, than in most of the other provinces of Britain. In this age of communication and intelligence, few will be credulously eager to imagine that the inhabitants of any one part of our island are materially distinguished in their characters from those of another: yet none can immerge themselves in this romantic country, without being struck by the superior modesty and simplicity of its inhabitants. Removed from active scenes of commercial life, and from corrupting examples of selfish splendour, their minds seem sufficiently occupied in the limited transactions of their own little world, without experiencing interruption from any envious feeling at the triumphs of the greater or more wealthy. It is from the peasantry, the national character of an agricultural district is naturally to be deduced; and those of Cambria undoubtedly present an illustration of the happiest description. The poverty of the soil, scantiness of population, and great distance from populous towns, render Wales a residence unsuited to the agricultural capitalist. The land is subdivided into small portions, and amongst a considerable number of yeomen. Hence it arises, that the children of poverty are not frowned on by contempt, and the humbler classes do not acquire those envious and disreputable habits, by which, in other countries, they are too often tempted to resist the ostentations of the rich. Their manners are obliging without servility, and plain without rusticity; their familiarity springs from kindness, not from disrespect; and they exhibit an independence the more to be admired in proportion to its obviously natural growth.
Our earliest annals inform us that the Cambrians “were a people light and active, and more fierce than strong:” all classes, from the prince to the peasant, were devoted to arms, and prepared to give a ready service at the first summons of the trumpet. Their military spirit was unconfined, and love of their country boundless. The profession of arms was held in so much estimation, that to die in one’s bed was deemed disgraceful, and the field of battle held to be the only honourable grave.
“Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws,
And asks no omen but his country’s cause.”Iliad xii.
Their armour consisted of a short coat of mail, a light shield, and iron greaves: sometimes only of those desiring to be free from all unnecessary incumbrances in accomplishing forced marches through trackless deserts. Their only defensive weapons were the sword, the spear, and the arrow. Their bows were sometimes formed of interwoven twigs, and though of slight materials, and rude workmanship, when bent by a sinewy arm dealt a deadly wound. The men of North Wales were more dexterous in the management of the spear, with which they pierced the closest iron mail: their brethren of South Wales more conspicuous for their great skill in archery.
The dress in time of peace was simple and uncostly. The men wore a woollen garment or cota around the body, kept their hair cut short over the ears and eyes, and rounded every where so as not to obstruct their agile movements in the woods and thickets. It is not improbable that they retained a thick covering of hair on the top of the head, like the glibe of the ancient Irish, as a protection against weather. The beard was shaven off, a mustachio on the upper lip only being preserved. The women wore a turban folded round the head, and rising in a coronul or tuft. Both sexes paid little respect to the protection of the feet, being seldom supplied with slippers or buskins, the men only in the field of battle. The shoes, worn on these occasions were made of the dried skins of animals of the chase, with the hair turned inward, and subsequently of half-tanned leather, attached to the foot by a thong or latchet of the same material, after the manner of a sandal. Both sexes are represented as paying a singular regard to the beauty and whiteness of their teeth, which they cleaned by the application of the leaves and bark of the hazel, and afterwards rubbed with a woollen cloth.
Many of these customs belong to the military character of the ancient inhabitants, and disappeared with the extinction of the feudal system; white others may still be distinctly traced in the existing state of society. The flannel cota (crys gwlanen) is worn by miners during working hours, and by the peasantry of the high districts in the rainy seasons. The females retain the ancient cap, which they now surmount with a hat, in a manner both pleasing and peculiar. Their principal garment consists of a short bed-gown, fastened round the waist with a girdle, in a smart and rather graceful style; and their stockings are after the olden fashion, that is, without feet, and held down by a loop that passes round one of the toes; these however are only worn on working days; entire hose of excellent manufacture succeed them upon holidays and occasions of dress. The tout ensemble of a Welsh peasant girl, while it conveys an idea of primitiveness, and appears wisely calculated to resist a cold and fickle climate, is neat, pleasing, and picturesque, resembling much the costume of the female peasants of the Tyrol.
Hospitality has always been classed amongst the characteristics of an ancient Briton, and its genius is acknowledged to hold uninterrupted possession to the present day. Here young Fleance found a secure asylum from the murderous designs of the usurper Macbeth, and here his son, born of a Cambrian princess, dwelt, until a desire to visit the land of his fathers led him to the Scottish court, where he attained the highest tank, and became the ancestor of the royal line of Stuart.
The Earl of Richmond (afterwards Henry the Seventh) found a chair at every festive board, and a couch in every hall in Wales, while he was a wanderer, and a fugitive; nor did these kindnesses originate in any inordinate prospect of honour or of gain, most of the gentlemen from Wales, who subsequently fought under his banner, having declined the grateful monarch’s offers of reward. This domestic virtue is still fondly cherished here, and practised with all its pristine beauty. There is less peculiarity in the mode of living than in other circumstances connected with the national character. The peasant seldom partakes of animal food, cattle being reared for the landlord’s benefit exclusively. Oaten bread, milk, cheese, cords, and butter constitute the principal diet of the working classes.
The ancient Welsh castles have been spoken of elsewhere, and a few mansions of the days gone by described; it remains still to say something of the cottages of the humble. Less architectural externally than those in England, but superior to the hut of the Irish labourer, the cottages of the poor are inferior to none in internal neatness and comfort. They are supplied with a variety of furniture, amongst which a clock, oak dresser, and settle (settee), or pannelled sofa, are always to be found. The spinning wheel has disappeared since the introduction of machinery into the little woollen factories erected on the rills amidst the mountains; and the brass pan for brewing “cwrw ddâ,” presents its broad bright disk beneath the dresser of every respectable farm-house.