is brought to light. Since this custom is entirely confined to the
laboring classes of the community, it is not so pregnant with danger as,
on a first supposition, it might seem. Both parties are so poor that
they are necessarily constrained to render their issue legitimate, in
order to secure their reputation, and with a mode of obtaining a
livelihood."

Another traveller[9] also mentions "a singular custom that is said to
prevail in Wales, relating to their mode of courtship, which is declared
to be carried on in bed; and, what is more extraordinary, it is averred
that the moving tale of love is agitated in that situation without
endangering a breach in the preliminaries." Referring to Mr. Pratt's
account of the custom, before quoted, he proceeds to remark: "Our
companion, like every one else that we spoke with in Wales on the
subject, at once denied the existence of this custom: that maids in many
instances admitted male bed-fellows, he did not doubt; but that the
procedure was sanctioned by _tolerated custom_ he considered a gross
misrepresentation. Yet in Anglesea and some parts of North Wales, where
the original simplicity of manners and high sense of chastity of the
natives is retained, he admitted _something of the kind_ might appear.
In those thinly inhabited districts a peasant often has several miles to
walk after the hours of labor, to visit his mistress; those who have
reciprocally entertained the _belle passion_ will easily imagine that
before the lovers grow tired of each other's company the night will be
far enough advanced; nor is it surprising that a tender-hearted damsel
should be disinclined to turn her lover out over bogs and mountains
until the dawn of day. The fact is, that under such circumstances she
admits a _consors lecti_, but not in _nudatum corpus_. In a lonely Welsh
hut this bedding has not the alarm of ceremony; from sitting, or perhaps
lying, on the hearth, they have only to shift their quarters to a heap