Welsh Journals

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THE CAMBRIAN VISITOR. MAY, 1813. HISTORY OP WALES. Continued from p. 156. CHAP. I. SECT. V. Marriages of the ancient Britons—Their love of feasting—Praise of Mead—Rites of sepulture, Sfc. T, HE Celtic nations of Europe, even at their lowest degree of civilization, appear to have regarded women with sentiments which the age of chivalry need not have disdained, although they were mingled with ideas of female duty, which even in our more moderate code of gallantry, would be set down as barbarous. From the sketch already given of their domestic habits, it will be seen that a wife was absolutely necessary to the British youth as soon as he was allowed to assume the privileges of manhood, and place himself at the head of an household which he might call his own. Without such a constant associate his affairs at home would have no regulator, for his two-fold profession of warrior and hunter was continually calling him abroad, and when he returned home, it was to rest and solace himself, not to la¬ bour. Our fore-fathers, however, appear to have been influen¬ ced by motives more worthy of the human heart than those of mere domestic convenience, in their union with the tender sex. The attractions of beauty, and the sweets of interchanged afiec- VOL. I. F F