330 A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALfcS. 



as can be collected together, attend the 

 couple to the church, and from thence, 

 after the ceremony, home again. Here 

 a collection is made amongft the guefts, 

 to defray the expences of the occafion, 

 and frequently to aid in eftablifhing the 

 new married couple in the world. At thefe 

 times they are often fo extravagant, that 

 many of them have literally to ftarve, 

 perhaps for near a month afterwards, in 

 order to make up the fum they thus fool- 

 ifhly expend ; and it is from impru- 

 dencies of this kind, and the fmallnefs 

 of their earnings, that the people are 

 kept fo miferably poor. In South 

 Wales, previous to their weddings, a 

 herald with a crook, or wand, afdorned 

 with ribands, fometimes makes the cir- 

 cuit of the neighbourhood, and makes 

 his " bidding/' or invitation, in a pre- 

 fcribed form. But the Knight errant 

 eavalcade on hourfeback the carrying 



off 



