Welsh Journals

FOREWORD This is the seventh issue of The Pembrokeshire Historian. The first appeared in 1959 and the others at irregular intervals since that date. The cause of this inconstancy is economic, and it is only proper to say that none would have appeared were it not for the financial support, in the first in- stance, of the Pembrokeshire Community Council, and more latterly, of the Dyfed Rural Council. The infrequency of appearance, however, has been more than compensated by the high quality of content, and this issue main- tains that exceptional standard. D. J. Cathcart King in writing on the Old Earldom of Pembroke weaves a tapestry, to rival Bayeux's, that provides a synoptic history of the Norman invasion of Pembrokeshire. Dr Margaret Davies highlights the heyday of natural history in Tenby, a neglected period which was marked by the presence of T. H. Huxley, sent down to survey the fish stock in Carmarthen Bay: J. D. Hooker, Director of Kew Gardens, and the author Philip Gosse who recorded in his diary in 1849; 'Emily delivered of a son. Received green swallow from Jamaica.' Roland Thorne, of the History of Parliament Trust, traces the fortunes of the Leach family from a reeve of Castlemartin in Tudor times to Brigadier General Sir Edmund Burleigh Leach, C.B., C.M.G., C.V.O., who died in 1936, the last of the line at Corston. The lengthy and boring sermons of the rector of Maenordeifi, it is said, led Fanny Saunders Davies to build a private chapel at Pentre just over a hundred years ago. The chapel is no more but the story of its brief life has been set down for us by D. L. Baker-Jones, of the County Record Office. A reference in an earlier issue to a Carew family led Kenneth R. Jones of Watford to provide information that is of the very stuff of local history. The story of the development of nonconformity in Pembrokeshire remains to be written. Dr David Howell of University College, Swansea, and the Society's Chairman, has touched upon one facet in his contribution on Primitive Methodism in the anglicised parts of the county. The Primitive Methodists seceded in 1810 and adopted this name because they reverted to the original Wesley methods of field preaching which appealed to the poorer classes to whom it offered comfort and solace and an opportunity for self expression and participation, until they united with the Wesleyans in 1933. It was at the suggestion of my friend Major Francis Jones that I endeavoured to revive the Pembrokeshire Local History Society in 1954. He has contributed to each issue of this journal and, indeed, No. 5 was devoted entirely to him in an effort to place on record a small proportion of his vast industry. It is only fitting that he should have the last word with his engross- ing account of Castle Villa. I should like to thank all those who have made my editorial task a pleasure and I hope that The Pembrokeshire Historian will long continue. DILLWYN MILES Hon. Editor.