tons; but in the latter, to an iron cross is fufpended a bowl, containing holy water, with which the re Yet, tho' her thoughts could find no vent, Then, gentle maiden! do not fear, And ftrew thy herbs and flow'rs so sweet, And you, whom all around I fee The fame dear, mournful tafk employ : Oh! 'tis delicious to maintain Of friends deceas'd a due refpect! And many a friend's (whom faithful love With choiceft garlands weekly drefs'd, Come then, the wicker basket bring, Come, MEMORY, and with me go! A mellow tear of foothing woe Shall o'r the graves fpontaneous fall; While HEAV'N the heart's ftill wish shall hear, And to each other grant us all. latives latives fprinkle the graves of the deceased as often as they come to church. Shakspeare fays, and with his accustomed sweet nefs "With faireft flowers, while fummer lafts, "I'll fweeten thy fad grave; thou shalt not lack I truft, my friend, you will long continue your good wishes to the Pembrokeshire widow. It is in this part of Wales, that the women dress their heads in a peculiar manner; they wear a cumbrous gown of dark blue cloth, even in the midst of summer; inftead of a cap, a large handkerchief is wrapt over their heads, and tied under the chin in other places, the women as well as the men wear large hats with broad brims, often flapping over their fhoulders. Thefe gleanings, however, in the church-yard, are a little out of place, for when I was on the subject of Welth courtships, I ought to have immediately gone to Welfh weddings; this being, you know, the natural order, unless you are of opinion with not a few, who affert that marriage and death are pretty much the fame thing; and that the former is only burying the living instead of of the dead. Many of my fair countrywomen, I fear, think the latter would be a refource to them. The ceremonies of the Cambrian peafants, in the unpolished parts of the country, are no less fingular than those at their wooing. The friends and relations of both parties, not only teftify the ufual demonftrations of joy during the day-time, but keep it up the whole night; the men visitors putting to bed the bridegroom, and the females the bride; after which the whole company remain in the chamber, drinking jocund healths to the new-married couple, and their pofterity, finging fongs, dancing and giving into every other feftivity, fometimes for two or three days together. Prepofterous enough you will fay! but as this, generally speaking, happens to a man and woman but once in a life, and gives now and then an holiday, that is, a few hours or days' rest from labour to a race of harmless, hard-toiling creatures, it may be difpenfed with. Their relaxations are few, and our own many. There is, un doubtedly, less refinement, perhaps, less delicacy in theirs; but are they not as innocent, as reafonable as ours? "A little fofter, but as fenfelefs quite. I need not afk allowance for the ftrange, but unoffending ufages of thefe humble children of nature. Pride looks down upon them; yet is not pride more truly an object of pity? But for these clods of moving earth, as they are arrogantly called, feeling themselves contented in their "happy, lowly," fituations, what would become of that helpless part of the fpecies, who 'neither, 66 " toil nor fpin?" How frequently does it happen, that an honeft hind, who seems scarcely diftinguishable from the foil which he works into bread, is of more use in the great community of mankind, and, of course, a better member of it, than a whole generation of those conceited beings who fpurn his cottage, and fquander the noble inheritance of their ancestors amidst the vices of refinement! How preferable the virtues of rufticity! LETTER X. TO THE SAME. I ASSERTED that the lower order of people in this country are fuperftitious. They were fo at all times. Anciently its contagion tinctured the more enlightened. One of the old historians very gravely recounts numberlefs preternatural in ftances of cafualtics, which he conftrued into divine 1 divine judgments. Amongst others, he tells us, that in the reign of Ivor, the third prince of Wales, there happened a remarkable earthquake in the Isle of Man, which much disturbed and annoyed the inhabitants; and in the year following that it rained blood both in Britain and Ireland, infomuch that the butter and milk resembled the colour of blood. What fanguinary torrents, my friend, muft have fallen to have thus changed the nature of the grafs, and literally to make "the green one red!" He adds, thefe accidents of nature might probably prefage fome tumults and disturbances in the kingdom. The fame author, I remember, afferts, that as a prognoftick of the death of Elbodius, archbishop of North Wales, there happened a very fevere eclipfe of the fun, and the year following there was an eclipfe of the moon, and upon Christmas-day! and thefe he confiders as portents that boded no good to the Welsh affairs. By way of making out the prediction of the effect of these fatalities, we are folemnly informed they were followed by a very grievous and general murrain of cattle, which impoverished the whole country, and the year preceding, A. D. 808, was marked by the Weft Saxons laying the city of St. David's in afhes. Thus it is, my friend, that foothsayers of every age first frame their prophecies, and then invete rately fulfil them; for the very next good and evil |