of straw or fern covered with two or three blankets in a neighboring
corner. The practice only takes place with _this view of
accommodation_."

Still another glimpse of this favorite Welsh custom is presented by a
tourist in 1807.[10] He says:

"One evening, at an inn where we halted, we heard a considerable bustle
in the kitchen, and, upon enquiry, I was let into a secret worth
knowing. The landlord had been scolding one of his maids, a very pretty,
plump little girl, for not having done her work; and the reason which
she alleged for her idleness was, that her master having locked the
street door at night, had prevented her lover enjoying the rights and
delights of _bundling_, an amatory indulgence which, considering that it
is sanctioned by custom, may be regarded as somewhat singular, although
it is not exclusively of Welsh growth. The process is very simple; the
gay Lothario, when all is silent, steals to the chamber of his mistress,
who receives him in bed, but with the modest precaution of wearing her
under petticoat, which is always fastened at the bottom--not
unfrequently, I am told, by a sliding knot. It may astonish a London
gallant to be told that this extraordinary experiment often ends in
downright wedlock--the knot which cannot slide. A gentleman of
respectability also assured me that he was obliged to indulge his female
servants in these nocturnal interviews, and that too at all hours of the
night, otherwise his whole family would be thrown into disorder by their
neglect; the carpet would not be dusted, nor would the kettle boil. I
think this custom should share the fate of the northern Welsh goats.
* * * * Habit has so reconciled the mind to the comforts of _bundling_,
that a young lady who entered the coach soon after we left Shrewsbury,
about eighteen years of age, with a serene and modest countenance,