Welsh Journals

of the gradual substitution of coal for charcoal in the smelting of iron as far as this is ever likely to be practicable; he leaves Dud Dudley with a carefully trimmed remnant of credit. Dr. Rees excels in his examination of copper and lead working in the comparatively neglected period after 1660, and in his account of the industrial enterprises of Sir Humphrey Mack- worth, to take one instance, he breaks new ground. While these two volumes thus bristle with new information, it may be wondered if Dr. Rees's method of presentation always does it full justice. At best, it brings vividly before our eyes the pertinacious efforts of men to wrest a hidden wealth from the earth; but there are moments when we are liable to be confronted by a welter of facts, perhaps elaborated in a lengthy footnote, behind which the current of argument grows faint. His obiter dicta sometimes provoke general questions, the answers to which he is too cautious directly to risk. How far was the capital for the establish- ment of forges and furnaces and the sinking of mines drawn from the landowning class ? Evidence is scattered here and there through Dr. Rees's pages to suggest how much was owed to the enterprise of, e.g., the Sidney, Herbert, Mansell, Wynn and Myddelton families, though we also hear from time to time of participation by London merchants. In the critical initial stages of copper mining and metallurgical work in the later sixteenth century, Dr. Rees well brings out the crucial role of the well-known City figure Mr. Customer Smythe, who alone seems to have been able to make the Keswick works pay. Or to what extent were the iron trades dependent upon foreign markets, both for the raw material and for the ironwares that represent the final product? Here, too, we have plenty of hints, though it is not always clear where they point. Perhaps we should not expect Dr. Rees to do our homework for us. Whatever criticisms might be ventured upon his strategic approach, his pages embody a notable contribution to our knowledge. They contain the best general account of iron-working in these islands before the eighteenth century, and make clear the contribution of Wales to the copper and lead industries. On mining law and technique they have much light to throw. It may be predicted that they will long provide a quarry for the practitioners alike of local history and of la haute vulgarisation. G. D. RAMSAY St. Edmund Hall, Oxford BLACK BART. By Stanley Richards. Christopher Davies, Llandybie, 1966. Pp. 121. 15s. The dramatic career of John Roberts, the dark, handsome young man from Casnewydd Bach, Pembrokeshire, who became the dreaded Captain