Welsh Journals

the project then mooted was still-born and it has been left to individual scholars like Mr. Gwynedd Pierce to tackle the multifarious problems of the toponymy of Wales without the obvious benefits of the team-work and co-operation of a society. Mr. Pierce's book follows closely the well- conceived pattern of the EPNS, but his study is confined to only one hundred of Glamorgan-the compact historical unit which forms the eastern half of the Vale of Glamorgan. The author, who has worked on his subject for over fifteen years, has collected a vast amount of material and quotes all the old forms of the place-names in this area which he has found in printed and manuscript sources, ranging from medieval documents down to the tithe and ordnance survey maps. If he has not exhausted the sources, he has nearly done so. It is not his fault, therefore, if the material tends at times to be sparse and late, particularly for minor names. Without the guidance of early forms the interpretation of place-names is a hazardous business and Mr. Pierce shows that he is well aware of this in his careful treatment of the material. The names are arranged by parishes and in alphabetical order. Following the main group of names in each parish there is a collection of field names drawn from the available sources, also arranged alphabetically. The accumulation of such details for each of the twenty parishes makes the whole work an important study in depth of the toponymy of the hundred. The historian will find in the Introduction some illuminating observations on settlements and language based on the detailed survey. Working on a comparatively small region, the author is able to show his knowledge of the locality-its history, topography, linguistic peculiarities, local pronunciations, industries and population movements- and signs of his careful research are evident on page after page. He produces new evidence, augments what is already known and gently cor- rects the mistakes of other workers in this field, including this reviewer. In the interpretation of the names he weighs the evidence and quotes the views of other scholars at length before arriving at his own conclusions. Many of the names present great difficulties to the etymologist because of the lack of early forms and the intermixture of Welsh and English elements in the area, and Mr. Pierce wisely leaves many a problem un- solved, although at times the reader will feel that he could do with more guidance. He tackles the Welsh and English names with equal facility and is sound on matters of phonology. In a short review it is only possible to draw attention to a few minor points about which there may be disagree- ment. The lost district name Legoog (p. 16), interpreted as 'the territory of one Helig', might well be helygog, 'land where hazels abound' and com- parable to celynog, gwernog, etc. On the same page Gracilis via should be translated 'narrow way', not 'graceful way'. Thornos (p. 20) looks like a misreading of Thornes. Murch (p. 228) may well be merche, a dialect variant of mersc, 'marsh'. Plwca (p. 233) could be from the English dialect plock, pluck, 'a small plot', although there is good evidence for a Welsh