Welsh Journals

Welsh history was seen much more in terms of native society or at least of the native squirearchy rather than in terms of an alien administration. The role of that native squirearchy and its ambivalent attitude to the English government was now firmly grasped and to that extent our understanding of late medieval Welsh society was greatly enriched. In this respect Glyn Roberts has, to my mind, begun an important re-orientation in our approach to the study of post-Conquest Wales. The full measure of that re-orientation, as of so much in these later essays, yet remains to be worked out; but he himself had sketched the lines of his own re-thinking in his memorable article (in ante, I, No. 4 (1963) ) on 'England and Wales: Antipathy and Sympathy, 1282-1485'. This was his historical testament and an unfinished one at that. One of the urgent tasks of the historians of this period now is to work out in detail how far the picture presented by Glyn Roberts can be reconciled with the equally original and important studies of the late Professor T. Jones Pierce on this period. Whilst extending our thanks, therefore, to the editors of this volume and their helpers for paying such a fitting tribute to the memory of Glyn Roberts, it is also gratifying to know that the University of Wales Press is performing a like service for the works of Jones Pierce, with a volume to be edited by Mr. J. Beverley Smith. Between them the collected papers of these two scholars-great as is their difference in approach and emphasis-will represent some of the most exciting and original contributions to the study of medieval Wales in the last generation or so. R. R. DAVIES. University College, London. THE ROMAN VILLA IN BRITAIN. Edited by A. L. F. Rivet. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969. Pp. xvi, 299. 75s. (£3'75). This lavishly-illustrated book is of considerable importance to all who would understand Roman Britain. It consists of six essays by different authors; between them they provide a fair statement of the problem as it was five years ago, and in doing this they provide also the basis for future advance. The chapter by Sir Ian Richmond was unfinished at the time of his death, and Rivet has unwisely reprinted the equivalent chapter (on villa plans) from The Archaeology of Roman Britain, by Collingwood and Richmond; written in a different context, it seems out of place in the present work, where the other authors are all prepared to produce new and challenging ideas. H. C. Bowen provides a masterly summary of economic and social aspects of pre-Roman life in Lowland Britain, especially Wessex; we could wish only for a companion piece on the Highland Zone. Joan Liversidge contributes a remarkably detailed and stimulating essay on the furnishing and decoration of British villas, enriched by reference to continental parallels. It is however difficult to share her enthusiasm for