IN the American colonies, travellers from England discovered the existence of a scandalous, but endearing, courting custom which by mid-eighteenth century appeared to be firmly rooted in those parts: that of bundling. If they had cared to look, they could have found the same custom practised in the British Isles; but it was fashionable to find amusement among the colonials.
At this day the subject of bundling is in some danger of being over-written and the facts of the practice are embedded in a cocoon of conjecture and misinformation. The fascination of bundling may be gauged from the fact that an American has written five books about it, while protesting that he is 'not particularly interested in the subject'.
Two forms of bundling must be distinguished: that which involves no more than the admission of a benighted traveller to the bed of a humble home (a practice which has inspired so many commercial traveller jokes); and that in which a couple of sweethearts, fully or partly dressed, share the same bed, and dally in it, subject to certain restraints, moral or physical.
Variations of bundling as a courting custom have been found among savage tribes, notably Red Indians and Sea Dyaks, but these examples do not help to explain why the practice should have flourished in New England. There are those who hold that bundling is a custom always likely to spring up in certain social conditions. In the New England settlements homes were small, fuel was scarce, working hours were long. Since night was the only time courting couples could meet, surely it was reasonable to let them laugh and whisper together in bed, under supervision, and thus, incidentally and laudably, save fuel? In a God-fearing community, what could be the danger?
|