Welsh Journals

revealing detail, and there by some mischievous 'aside'. Certainly in this form, the salt is full of savour. ALUN DAVIES. Swansea. WELSH RURAL COMMUNITIES. By David Jenkins, Emrys Jones, T. Jones Hughes, and Trefor M. Owen. Edited by Elwyn Davies and Alwyn D. Rees. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1960. Pp. xi + 254. 15s. Although written in English, for which many readers in Wales and more outside will be grateful, this book is about as Welsh as it could be. Its subject matter is Welsh, its four authors and two editors are Welsh (all six are products of the School of Geography and Anthropology at Aberystwyth) and it is published by the University of Wales Press, of which one of the editors, Dr. Elwyn Davies, is secretary. The other editor, Alwyn Rees, is something more, for his work has inspired and set the example for much that is contained in the book, though his Life in a Welsh Countryside, which has been widely acclaimed, was published after the present studies were made in the years 1945-50. The delay in publication is unfortunate, and one would like to know what changes have taken place in the four communities in the interlude. Referring to their dominant concern with religious matters, the editors point out, with vicarious modesty, that the authors as committed players cannot see the cultural game as a whole, and that the touchline observer is better able to describe the rough and tumble of all the forces at play. Be that as it may, Welsh cultural life has had more than its share of writers who hurl abuse and advice from beyond the border or from the grandstand. It is refreshing to read these exercises in self-analysis. Surprisingly, what impresses one most is the variety they display, both in the approach of each writer and in their findings. One is not entirely convinced by Mr. David Jenkins's analysis of the sharp dichotomy in the social pattern of Aber-porth ('A Study of a Coastal Village in South Cardiganshire'), with its two contrasted groups. When we are told that 96 per cent. of the wordly Buchedd B groups are 'labourers, roadmen, etc. it must be asked whether the economic basis of the division has not been underestimated. But no one will dispute his conclusions as to the importance of religion. Yet the picture is changing and must change: it seems that conformity is so strong among the Nonconformists of Buchedd A that those who wish to break away can most easily do so by emigrating. Mr. Jenkins also has a section on farm economy which has little bearing on his main thesis. Dr. Emrys Jones's study of Tregaron is more systematic, comprehensive, and convincing. Entitled 'The Sociology of a Market Town in Central Cardiganshire', it relates the social and economic structure of the com- munity to environment and history and helps us to see the Bucheddau in