Welsh Journals

Mr. Usher shows us that they were resident squires, capable managers of estates, prominent in local and public affairs, and their home a centre of hospitality and culture. He has provided us with vivid descriptions of domestic life at Gwysaney and Llannerch in the seventeenth, and at Owston in the eighteenth, century (pp. 86-8, 117-26, 180-92). Architectural details, changes and improvement help to complete the picture. If little is given of the early history and origins of the Cookes, and if they lacked the panache that pedigree bestowed on their Welsh counter- part, their contribution to public life was no less distinguished. From Owston Hall, their Yorkshire home, came Bryan Cooke (1756-1821) to marry Frances Puleston of Hafod y Wern, whose mother was co-heiress of the house of Gwysaney. The history of the descendants of this union follows the traditional pattern of a county family-knights of the shire, high sheriffs, deputy-lieutenants, justices of the peace, officers of the miltia and volunteers, service in the regular army, and loyalty to local associations, family, and property. Perhaps the most moving part of the book is the personal contribution of Colonel P. R. Davies-Cooke, the present head of the family, whose 'Epilogue', written with feeling and good sense, reveals that adaptability which had been practised so often by his ancestors when faced by the challenge of changing times. Mr. Usher has done the work well, and it is a pleasure to welcome his book as a notable contribution to social history. A few suggestions might be made for inclusion in a further edition of the book. Although 'intended primarily as a record' for the family who commissioned the work (p. 7), the lack of an index will surely be deplored by all users of it. A more comprehensive pedigree, to include the younger children, would have been a great help in identifying the figures that flit through the pages. Nevertheless, these are minor blemishes in a work of scholarship that should grace the shelves of all students of family history. FRANCIS JONES. County Record Office, Carmarthen. A CALENDAR OF THE MERIONETH QUARTER SESSIONS ROLLS. Vol. I: 1733-65. Edited by Keith Williams-Jones. Published by Merioneth County Council, 1965. Pp. xc, 376. 25s. The Merioneth County Council is to be congratulated on this publication, which throws a flood of light on the practical working of local government in Georgian Wales. The volume is an attractive production, comprising a lengthy introduction, facsimiles of specimen documents, maps and seven appendices, as well as the basic corpus of source material indicated in the title. All this care and scholarship of the