fashionable Strephons and their nymphs in groves and shady bowers. The
power of habit is perhaps stronger than the power of passion, or even of
the charms which inspire it; and it is sufficient, almost, to say a
thing is the _custom of a country_, to clear it from any reproach that
would attach to an innovation. Were it the practice of a few only, and
to be gratified by stealth, there would, from the strange construction
of human nature, be more cause of suspicion; but being ancient, general,
and carried on without difficulty, it is probably as little dangerous as
a _tête a tête_ in a drawing-room, or in any other full dress place
where young people meet to say soft things to each other."

In an antiquarian tour by the Rev. W. Bingley, in 1804,[8] we also find
the following description of this custom: "The peasantry of part of
Caernarvonshire, Anglesea, and Merionethshire, adopt a mode of
_courtship_ which, till within the last few years, was scarcely even
heard of in England. It is the same that is common in many parts of
America, and termed by the inhabitants of that country, _bundling_. The
lover steals, under the shadow of the night, to the bed of the fair one,
into which (retaining an essential part of his dress) he is admitted
without any shyness or reserve. Saturday or Sunday nights are the
principal times when this courtship takes place, and on these nights the
men sometimes walk from a distance of ten miles or more to visit their
favorite damsels. This strange custom seems to have originated in the
scarcity of fuel, and in the unpleasantness of sitting together in the
colder part of the year without a fire. Much has been said of the
innocence with which these meetings are conducted, but it is a very
common thing for the consequence of the interview to make its appearance
in the world within two or three months after the marriage ceremony has
taken place. The subject excites no particular attention among the
neighbors, provided the marriage be made good before the living witness