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
But, to proceed with our account of the old wedding customs, it
was the practice after finding the hidden bride, and partaking of a
little refreshments, for the wedding party to mount their horses,
and they were joined by the bridegroom and his friends, and made
their way towards the church. The young woman was mounted on a fine
and swift horse; but often she had to be content to be mounted behind
her father, or a brother or a friend; and when the latter was the case,
she had to sit on crupper without any pillion, and holding fast to the
man. Then the whole cavalcade would gallop off to church. But during
the procession the bride was seized suddenly by one of her relatives
or friends, stolen away and borne off to a distance. However, this
feigned attempt to run away with her was done only in sport. Then
a chase ensued, when the bridegroom and his friends drove after her
like madmen till they caught her and took her to church. The driving
was so furious on such occasions that legs and arms were sometimes
broken. Mr. D. Jones in his interesting Welsh book on the History of
the Parish of Llangeler, says that in the year 1844, at the wedding
of Dinah, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Jones, Saron, one James Evans,
the groom of the late Colonel Lewes, drove so furiously that his horse
struck against a wall with the result that both the animal and its
rider were killed on the spot, near Llangeler Church! In consequence
of such a melancholy event the Horse Wedding was discontinued in
that part of the country, through the influence of the Vicar, the
Rev. John Griffiths, who preached against the practice from II. Kings,
chap. IX. verse 20 ... "And the driving is like the driving of Jehu
the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously."
The following account of a Horse Wedding appeared in "The Folk Lore of
North Wales" by the late Rev. Elias Owen, F.S.A., whose informant was
the Rev. Canon Griffith Jones, who witnessed the wedding, which took
place at Tregaron, Cardiganshire. We are told that "The friends of
both the young people were on horseback, and according to custom they
presented themselves at the house of the young woman, the one to escort
her to the church, and the other to hinder her from going there. The
friends of the young man were called "Gwyr shegouts." When the young
lady was mounted, she was surrounded by the "gwyr shegouts," and the
cavalcade started. All went on peaceably until a lane was reached, down
which the lady bolted, and here the struggle commenced, for her friends
dashed between her and her husband's friends and endeavoured to force
them back, and thus assist her to escape. The parties, Mr. Jones said,
rode furiously and madly, and the struggle presented a cavalry charge,
and it was not without much apparent danger that the opposition was
overcome, and the lady ultimately forced to proceed to the church,
where her future husband was anxiously awaiting her arrival."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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