"Madam, your own dignity and delicacy ought to suggest to you that the less you interfere in these matters the more creditable it will be to your own common sense," said the squire, in a tone which was unmistakable. "I insist," cried the imperious dame, "that he be put in the stocks, and be ducked in the river."
"Neither shall be done," said he firmly, "and from henceforward no person shall be annoyed or persecuted on that score, but everyone shall court as he or she pleases." "What!" cried the indignant lady, "would you fill the country with b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"
"No, madam," was the reply, "but with as happy a set of people as possible."
Encouraged by the turn which affairs had taken, the Cardiganshire maid now asked her master for her discharge; as her mistress, she said, had thrown a slur on her brewing abilities, which had almost broken her heart; "for" said she, with a ludicrous whimper, "she says my brewing is unfit for the drinking of Christian people, and hardly worthy of the hogs!-but," cried the st.u.r.dy little wench, raising her voice to an accusatory pitch, and at the same time a tone of triumph, "I came from Newcastle Emlyn, the country of good beer, the very home where the _Cwrw da_ of _Hen Gymru_ {50a} is bred and born, and I would rather die than be told that I can"t brew!"
"Indeed, Cardy," said the squire, with a smile, "though your mistress may have been too severe in her censure, I must say that your two last brewings were unequal to the first." "A good reason why, sir; who can brew without malt and hops? who can make bricks without straw? I hear some of the great London brewers do without either malt or hops, but I wouldn"t drink their brewings, I know; their brewings won"t do for us at Newcastle Emlyn! and your wheat, {50b} sir, which has grown by being cut in the wet harvest, so as to be unfit for bread, is but a poor make-shift for malt-it may do for the wish-wash paltry brewers" ale of Haverfordwest and Fishguard, or the Swansea folk, Merthyr blacks, and Cardiff boys, but our ploughboys would turn up their noses at such stuff at Newcastle Emlyn!
"d.a.m.n Newcastle Emlyn!" cried the squire, provoked by her continual reference to her native place. "Master! master!" cried the girl, as if rebuking him for the greatest impiety conceivable, "don"t d.a.m.n Newcastle Emlyn; I had rather you should knock me down than d.a.m.n Newcastle Emlyn!
it is the country of decent people and good home-brewed ale,-the country where"-
"You brewed good ale from the grown wheat the first time," said the squire, not deeming it necessary to notice her observations.
"Good! was it?" retorts the girl, struggling between respect for her master and contempt for his taste in the matter of malt drink; "good was it! I tell you what, master, you are a good master, and I have nothing to say against mistress, for it would not be decent, but you never tasted beer like ours at Newcastle Emlyn! the real hearty _cwrw da_! which I could make you to-morrow, if you would give me good malt and hops, and let it stand long enough untapped."
"But Cardy, there must be a sound reason for your two last brewings being inferior to the first. You could brew a well-flavoured, palatable beer, but you don"t now, although you have the same ingredients given you."
"The last was better, a good deal, than the other. The first would have turned the devil"s stomach, had he known what was in it."
"Explain yourself," said the squire, surprised. "I will, sir, if I were to be hanged for it," cried the girl in a tone of confidence; "it seems that rats love beer as well as any christian folks, and get drunk and die in drink, as a warning to all sober-minded rats; but that is neither here nor there, and I hate to tell a rigmarole story; the long and the short of it is, that when I came to wash out the barrels after the first brewing, I found three rats in one, and two in the other."
"You found what?" asked the squire and his lady at the same time.
"I found three rats, sir, that had burst themselves with drinking beer, and afterwards fell in and were drowned-they were then putrid, and it was that, it seems, that made the ale so palatable; there were no dead animals in the last brewing, so that of course it wasn"t so "palatable"
and well-flavoured as the other. But had I known your mind I might have killed a couple of cats, or put you in a bushel of lively c.o.c.kroaches."
This explanation excited a t.i.tter among the girls, and a loud laugh from the squire, while the lady evinced the shock which her delicacy had sustained, by making wry faces, and snuffing violently at her smelling-bottle to avoid fainting.
The squire good-humouredly addressed the girl,-"now, Cardy, you are perfectly right in the praise you bestow on your own country ale, and I promise you shall have the best of malt and hops for your next attempt, when I expect it to be equal to the best _cwrw da_ of Newcastle Emlyn-and, do you hear? we shall dispense with either rats or cats in it for the future."
This amicable settlement of differences set every one in good humour, except the haughty mistress, who, embittered with her double defeat, retired in gloom, while her husband went to give audience to Jack of Sheer Gar.
CHAPTER VIII.
"THE manners and customs" attendant on a Welsh Wedding. The Bidding.
The Gwahoddwr. The Ystavell. Pwrs a Gwregys. Pwython. In which our hero and his friend Watt play rather important parts.
Carmarthen Jack had not been long waiting for his master, before little Pembroke full of glee, ran to inform him that the embargo had been taken for ever off bed courtship; and that he was now free whether guilty or not. This happy news affected him so well that he met his master with comparative ease; and after some struggles with his native bashfulness, an important secret came out-that he was going to be married to Catty the schoolmistress; and wished to know whether he should be retained in the squire"s service after that event.
Now this was a circ.u.mstance exactly to the squire"s taste; as a Welsh wedding portrayed many national features in the character of the peasantry, that pleased him; and, as he was generally a donor on these occasions, his vanity was flattered by being looked up to as their patron. He of course acquiesced in his servant"s request, and after a little jocular and rough rallying, proposed that the _Bidding_ should be immediately commenced.
A _Bidding_ was another of the excellent customs peculiar to the Welsh, but of late years confined exclusively to the lower cla.s.ses, which the squire so much admired, and considered worthy of imitation, he said, throughout the world. It signifies a general and particular invitation to all the friends of the bride and bridegroom elect, to meet them at the houses of their respective parents, or any other place appointed. Any strangers who choose to attend are also made welcome. It is an understood thing that every person who comes, contributes a small sum towards making a purse for the young pair to begin the world with. They have a claim on those persons whose weddings they had themselves attended; and at these times their parents and friends also make their claims in their favour on all whom they may have at any time befriended in a similar manner. These donations are always registered, and considered as debts, to be repaid, on the occurrence of weddings only; but there are many contributors, especially the masters and mistresses of the parties, that of course require no repayment. These returns being made only by small instalments, and only at the weddings of their donors, are easily accomplished; and the benefit derived from this custom is great, where the parties are respected.
A novel feature, to those who have been unaccustomed to the Welsh wedding, is the Gwahoddwr or Bidder, who goes from house to house, with his staff of office-a white wand embellished with ribbons. His hat, and often the breast of his coat, is similarly decorated. Thus attired, he enters each house with suitable "pride of place," amidst the smiles of the old people, and giggling of the young ones; and taking his stand in the centre of the house, and striking his wand on the floor to enforce silence, announces the wedding which is to take place, sometimes in rhyme, but more frequently in a set speech of prose.
The banns were immediately put in, and every preparation made for the wedding. Watt the mole-catcher, as the greatest wag in the parish, was appointed by the squire to the enviable office of _Gwahoddwr_. The following homely lines, from a correct and liberal translation of those written for the purpose of giving Watt"s oratory full scope on this occasion. The Rev. John David Rhys, a young poetical clergyman, at this time a visitor with Squire Gras.p.a.cre, was the author; and though they do not betoken the "unapproachable of Parna.s.sus," they yet suited the purpose for which they were penned.
List to the Bidder!-a health to all Who dwell in this house, both great and small; Prosperity"s comforts ever attend The Bride and Bridegroom"s generous friend.
His door may it never need a latch; His hearth a fire, his cottage a thatch; His wife a card, or a spinning-wheel; His floor a table, nor on it a meal!
On Sat.u.r.day next a wedding you"ll see, In fair Tregaron, as gay as can be, Between John Rees, called Jack o Sheer Gar, And Catherine Jones, his chosen fair.
Haste to the wedding, its joy to share!
Mirth and good humour shall meet you there; Come one, come all: there"s a welcome true To master and mistress and servants too!
Stools you will find to sit upon, And tables, and goodly food thereon, b.u.t.ter and cheese, and flesh and fish, (If you can catch them!) all you wish.
There many a lad shall a sweetheart find, And many a la.s.s meet a youth to her mind, While nut-brown ale, both good and strong, Shall warm the heart for the dance and song.
Oft at the wedding are matches made, When dress"d in their best come youth and maid, And dance together, and whisper and kiss.- Who knows what wedding may rise from this.
Whoever may come to the bidding note,- There"s thanks to the friend who brings three groat; And ne"er may they hobble upon a crutch Whoe"er gives the lovers twice as much!
Whatever is given, so much they"ll restore- One shilling or two, or three, or four, Whenever in similar case "tis claim"d, Else were defaulters ever shamed. {55}
So haste to the wedding, both great small, Master and mistress and servants all!
Catty at home, Jack"s at the sign of the Cat; Now G.o.d save the king and the bidder Watt!
During this hubbub and preparation, Twm Shon Catty was granted the glorious privilege of a week"s holiday, and his friend Watt took him along with him to every house where he had to act as bidder. To see, was to learn with Twm, and to learn was to imitate. The thought soon struck him that he might be a _Gwahoddwr_; so he at once cut a stout willow wand, peeled it, and tacked a bunch of carpenter"s shavings and rush flags to the top. Forth he went, and standing in the midst of a group of admiring boys and girls, proceeded to imitate Watt in every motion. On this occasion it is said he invoked the aid of the tuneful nine, and composed the following effusion, but we suspect that he was only the mouthpiece to the real poet.
After Watt had finished, our hero struck _his_ emblem of office upon each floor, and repeated the following:-
Who"ll come to the wedding of Catty my mother?
Come mother, come daughter, son, father, brother, And bring all your cousins, and uncles, and aunts, To revel the feast at our jolly courants.
Haste, haste to the Bidding, ye stingy scrubs!
And out with your purses, and down with your dubs.
Come Gwenny and Griffith, and Roger and Sal; Morgan, Meredith, and Peggy and Pal; Come one, come all, with your best on back, To see mother married to spoon-making Jack; He"s a spoon for his pains, as ye all shall see soon, But lucky at finding a bowl to his spoon.
Haste, haste to the Bidding! my friends, if you please, For lack of white money bring good yellow cheese, And b.u.t.ter, but not in your pockets alack, Bring bacon or mutton well dried on the rack.
So endeth my story; come, haste we, friend Watty; Now G.o.d save the King, and his friend Twm Shon Catty!
Twm"s delivery of these lines excited much mirth and laughter, and, added to those of the real _Gwahoddwr_, drew more than ordinary attention to this Bidding. Many of the children of the different houses had been Twm"s school-fellows, and the pupils of his mother, which had the effect of influencing them, and became a sort of tie, to claim their presence at her bidding. As Jack"s friends were in Carmarthenshire, another _Gwahoddwr_ was appointed by his master to go with him to call on his at his own native place; and so liberal was the squire on this occasion, that he sent them both mounted on horses of their own.
Jack and his Bidder had no great success, as his friends reproached him for his perverse intention of marrying a strange woman in a far land; and finding but little pleasure in the subject or manner of their lectures, he made a precipitate retreat. Jack blushed for his countrymen, and he had sufficient native delicacy to see that their liberality would contrast disadvantageously with the warm generosity of Catty"s friends.
He therefore bribed Ianto Gwyn, the harper, who had acted as his bidder, to silence; and brought with him to Tregaron, in a hired cart, the common contribution of a bridegroom,-namely, a bedstead, a table, a stool, and a dresser. These, he feigned had been bought with his bidding-money, received at Carmarthen. Friday is always allotted to bring home the _Yestavell_, or the woman"s furniture; consisting generally of an oaken coffer or chest; a feather-bed and blankets; all the crockery and pewter; wooden bowls, piggings, spoons, and trenchers, with the general furniture of the shelf; but as Catty was already provided with every thing of this kind, she had but little to add to her stock.
The landlord of the public-house originally called "The Lion," but with a sign resembling a more ign.o.ble animal, causing it to be ultimately known by no other designation than that of "the cat," offered Jack his parlour to receive his Cardiganshire friends in. Accordingly, on the Friday before the wedding, he was busily employed in receiving money, cheese, and b.u.t.ter, from them, while Catty was similarly engaged at her residence, with _her_ partizans, which were not a few. This custom in Welsh is called _Pwrs a Gwregys_, or purse and girdle; and is, doubtless, of very remote origin.
At length the long-looked-for, the important Sat.u.r.day arrived; a day generally fixed upon for the celebration of the hymeneal ordinances, in Wales, from the sage persuasion that it is a _lucky day_, as well as for the convenience of the Sabbath intervening between it and a working day-a glorious season of sunshine to the children of labour.
Jack was agreeably disappointed to see a great many of his Carmarthen friends had repented of their unkind treatment of his bidder, and had now come to make amends. They came mounted on their ponies, and honourably paid their _Pwython_; that is to say, returned the presents which he or his relatives or friends had made at different weddings. Jack"s resentful and sudden disappearance, had a beneficial effect on the feelings of his friends and countrymen; and a jealousy of yielding the palm for liberality to a neighbouring country, stirred a spirit of emulous contention among them, which ended in a resolution that a party should attend the wedding, and bear with them the _Pwython_ of the others, who had an aversion to travel such a very distant journey, being nearly five and twenty miles, a distance in those days which was considered no joke, but which we now, in this age of steam and locomotion, bridge over in five and twenty minutes.