Complex sentence: The earliest textual document referring to the hoodening tradition comes from 1734, with a number of scattered references to it appearing over the next century and a half, many of which considered it to be a declining tradition that had died out in various areas.
Split into simpler sentences: The earliest textual document referring to the hoodening tradition comes from the first half of the eighteenth century. A number of scattered references to it appeared over the next century and a half, many of which considered it to be a declining tradition that had died out in various areas.