Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
In Merionethshire there is a tradition that many generations ago a
Squire of Gorsygedol, near Harlech, had a beautiful daughter who fell
in love with a shepherd boy. To prevent her seeing the young man, her
father locked his daughter in a garret, but a secret correspondence
was carried on between the lovers by means of a dove she had taught
to carry the letters. The young lady at last died broken-hearted,
and soon after her burial the dove was found dead upon her grave! And
the young man with a sad heart left his native land for ever.
More happy, though not less romantic, was the lot of a young man who
was shipwrecked on the coast of Pembrokeshire, and washed up more dead
than alive on the seashore, where he was found by the daughter and
heiress of Sir John de St. Bride's, who caused him to be carried to
her father's house where he was hospitably entertained. The young man,
of course, was soon head and ears in love with his fair deliverer,
and the lady being in nowise backward in response to his suit, they
married and founded a family of Laugharnes, and their descendants
for generations resided at Orlandon, near St. Bride's.
The Rev. D. G. Williams in his interesting Welsh collection of the
Folk-lore of Carmarthenshire says that in that part of the county which
borders on Pembrokeshire, there is a strange custom of presenting a
rejected lover with a yellow flower, or should it happen at the time
of year when there are no flowers, to give a yellow ribbon.
This reminds us of a curious old custom which was formerly very common
everywhere in Wales; that of presenting a rejected lover, whether
male or female, with a stick or sprig of hazel-tree. According to
the "Cambro Briton," for November, 1821, this was often done at a
"Cyfarfod Cymhorth," or a meeting held for the benefit of a poor
person, at whose house or at that of a neighbour, a number of young
women, mostly servants, used to meet by permission of their respective
employers, in order to give a day's work, either in spinning or
knitting, according as there was need of their assistance, and,
towards the close of the day, when their task was ended, dancing
and singing were usually introduced, and the evening spent with glee
and conviviality. At the early part of the day, it was customary for
the young women to receive some presents from their several suitors,
as a token of their truth or inconstancy. On this occasion the lover
could not present anything more odious to the fair one than the sprig
of a "collen," or hazel-tree, which was always a well-known sign of
a change of mind on the part of the young man, and, consequently,
that the maiden could no longer expect to be the real object of his
choice. The presents, in general, consisted of cakes, silver spoons,
etc., and agreeably to the respectability of the sweetheart, and were
highly decorated with all manner of flowers; and if it was the lover's
intention to break off his engagement with the young lady, he had only
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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