For, though British travelers have uniformly endeavored to fix the odium
of this custom upon us their transatlantic cousins, as being peculiarly
"An American institution," it is, nevertheless, an indisputable fact
that bundling has for centuries flourished within their own kingdom. For
what else, in fact, was that universal custom of promiscuous sleeping
together which prevailed among the ancient Britons at the time of the
Roman conquest, and which led Cæsar to consider them as polyandrous
polygamists, and other ancient writers to give them an unenviable
character for morality?[1] Bundling, of course! in its rudest aboriginal
form.
As to its moral aspects, being more charitably inclined towards our
British friends than they oftentimes are to us, we are willing to accept
Logan's defense of their ancestors. "The custom," he says, "which
continued until lately in some parts, and yet exists among a few of the
rudest, who sleep altogether on straw or rushes, according to the
general ancient practice, there is reason to believe, led to the
aspersion cast on the British and Irish tribes. How natural it must have
been for a casual observer to suppose, from seeing men and women
reposing in the same place, that the marriage rites were not in force.
To judge of the ancient inhabitants by the rudest of the present
Highlanders and Irish, who often sleep in the same apartment, and are
sometimes exposed to each other in a state of semi-nudity, we should not
come to a conclusion unfavorable to their morality,[2] for this mode of
life is not productive of that conjugal infidelity which St. Jerome and
others insinuate as prevalent among the old Scots. * * * Nations that
are even in a savage state are sometimes found more sensitive on that
point of honor than nations more advanced in civilization; and all,
perhaps, that can be admitted is, that certain formalities may have been
practiced by the Britons, from which the _bundling_ of the Welsh, and
the _hand-fasting_ in some parts of Scotland, are derived. The
conversation which took place between the Empress Julia and the wife of
a Caledonian chief, as related by Xiphilin, certainly evinces a
grossness and indelicacy in the amours of the British ladies, if true;
but it appears to be a reply where wit and reproof were more aimed at
than truth. The case of the Empress Cartismandua shows the nice feeling
of the Britons as to the propriety of female conduct. The respect of the
Germans for their females, and the severity with which they visited a
deviation from virtue, have been described; and the further testimony of
Tacitus may be adduced, who says that but very few of the greatest
dignity chose to have more than one wife, and when they did it was
merely for the honor of alliance. It may be here stated that the Gaëls
have no word to express cuckold, and that prostitutes were, by Scots'
law, like that of the ancient Germans, thrown into deep wells; and a
woman was not permitted to complain of an assault if she allowed more
than one night to elapse before the accusation."--_Logan's Scottish
Gaël_, 5th Am. edition, p. 472.[5]
Indeed, whatever may have been the real state of morality among the
ancient Scotch and Irish--and it is quite probable that it has been
unfairly depicted by casual and prejudiced observers--the ancient custom
of bundling, which has been handed down from earliest times, has not
greatly contaminated their descendants of the present day. For, whatever
their national vices, the Scotch and Irish of our day maintain a
character for chastity superior to that of many of their more fortunate
and more civilized neighbors. Bundling, as now practiced in these
kingdoms, is merely a matter arising from the ignorance, or the poverty
of the inhabitants; and, while not salutary in its moral or physical
influence, is, at all events, less abused than we might reasonably
expect.