Note 56 — CHAP. VII.

It is a singular circumstance, that in the county of Cumberland is kept up among the peasantry a custom resembling this of the Welsh—voluntary contributions at weddings—which doubtless had its origin from the same source, and may be thus accounted for. When the Britons were driven by the Saxons from the valleys of England to the mountains of Wales, a considerable number of them separating from their countrymen, remained and settled in the North of England, among the Saxons, in a district thence called “Gwlad y Cymru,” i.e. the land of the Cymru, since corrupted to “Cumberland.” Adopting the language and manners of their conquerors, their own name as a people became entirely lost to their posterity, while this sole vestige (the contributions at weddings) alone remains, of their ancient customs.