Welsh Journals

MANY nineteenth century writers have recorded with interest those marriage customs which, if not peculiar to Cardiganshire, were more widely observed in that county. The Reverend Walter Davies (' Gwallter Mechain ') on a visit to Tregaron in 1813 was apparently pleased to come across a horse wedding' of the kind for which the district was renowned. He notes in his journal, Saw a Cardiganshire wedding at Tregaron. The minister tho't the procession would give a good specimen of the rapidity of the chace, as the bride was of a lighter make than ordinary to this comment he adds a short description of the activities of the party of ten gensdarmes who sought out the bride and brought her on horseback to be wed in the parish church." One feels from Walter Davies's entry that, as a Montgomeryshire man, this custom was unknown to him, except, perhaps, by hearsay. Unfortunately, on this occasion, he left Tregaron for Llanddewi Brefi when the wedding procession entered the churchyard, and id not stay for the bidding which was almost certainly held in one of the local inns after the church ceremony. In this way he missed seeing (and recording) a custom which, though perhaps less picturesque, was certainly more important than the horse wedding in the social and economic life of the neighbourhood. B. H. Malkin, another well-known writer of the same period, who has also left us an account of the horse wedding' or rustic ballet of action as he called it, did however attend some Cardiganshire biddings, and part of his well-known description may be quoted to indicate the general nature of this custom It is called a bidding and takes place on the evening of a marriage. The persons bidden or invited have been known to amount to some hundreds, in cases where the bridegroom or the bride are well respected and have been long established. Every guest makes a present to the new married pair of one or two shillings, or sometimes more, and these contributions in the whole form a collection of five, ten or twenty pounds, with which the young people are enabled to furnish their cottage, and in some instances to purchase a cow. This assistance is however considered as a debt on the part of the receivers, to be discharged by their giving a similar sum on the marriage of the contributor or of his children; 1The substance of a Welsh address delivered to the Society at Aberystwyth, 3 December 1960. 2Arch. Camb., 1923, p. 315. SB. H. Malkin, The Scenery, Antiquities and Biographies of South Wales, 1807 ed., Vol. II, p. 40.