Welsh Journals

distribution of land-uses within Welsh towns. Nevertheless, the distinctive- ness of the parts is clear, and the book offers a glimpse at the variety of geographical style. At the same time, the book does not reveal the full potential of geographical analysis. At no point can the reader find any insights into the problems of urban growth, into the issues raised by the need for central area redevelopment, into the nightmare problem of adjusting traditional towns to increasing volumes of motor traffic, into suburban sprawl, green belt policies, or the siting and location of new towns. The more analytical, more forward-looking aspects of urban geography are, unfortunately, neglected. Admittedly, Mr. Carter did not set out to deal with these problems. His interests have a more historical bias. But historians ought to be reminded that, in spite of its eclecticism, Mr. Carter's approach does not represent all that geographers are capable of saying about the towns of Wales. GERALD MANNERS Swansea GLAMORGAN HISTORIAN. Vol. II. Edited by Stewart Williams. D. Brown, Cowbridge, 1965. Pp. 224 (with 44 illustrations). 30s. Although the purpose of this finely produced album of assorted historical articles is as popular as it is academic, there are many pieces in it which will be of great interest to all Welsh historians, inside and outside Glamorgan. Some of these articles, for instance, Moelwyn Williams's on farming in pre-industrial times, or Ralph Griffiths's on the revolt of Llywelyn Bren in 1316, could well have appeared in scholarly historical journals. Such articles appear here because they are also of great interest to the informed general reader. A number of the articles, such as Kildare Meager's on Swansea and Nantgarw porcelain, or that of Elis Jenkins and Cyril Roberts on Old Photographs of Swansea, or Dr. North's on Glamorgan in Maps, depend heavily upon lavish illustrations of a kind which historical journals rarely provide. When one says that this volume has 'lavish' illustrations, one also means that the lavishness has a strictly informative purpose. Each article has the sureness of touch of the expert, although sometimes it is the expertise of the miniaturist. Who are we to say that the life of Dr. Whitlock Nicholl (deftly compiled by Dr. Peter Thomas from original manuscript material) is of rather limited significance ? Nicholl is ignored by the Dictionary of Welsh Biography which mentions far less important men. The history of Dinas Powis by Miss Tilney has, perhaps, more interest for Glamorgan than for Wales, but it is good of its kind. One is a little surprised, however, to see an illustration of the Old Mill, without Miss Tilney's mentioning the son of the miller, born in St. Andrew's Major in 1820, Dewi Wyn of Esyllt, one of the few writers produced by