Welsh Journals

through clearly in several of these very technical studies. Mr. Denholm- Young is as much concerned with what men thought as with what they did, and he is equally at home with a fourteenth-century bishop of Durham as with an obscure country knight. Thus, we have in this volume a description and a transcript of the catalogue of Bermondsey Priory which illustrates the intellectual interests of one religious house. We have an account of Richard de Bury, a key figure, by reason of his pre-humanist associations, in the intellectual life of fourteenth-century England. An account of the Cursus Curiae Romanae in England introduces the reader to some aspects of the intellectual life and interests of the educated clergy of the period. Both these essays, and in particular the remarks on Richard de Bury's Liber Epistolaris, focus attention as well on the important topic of fourteenth- century letter collections, collections as various as those compiled by clerks of the privy seal, Oxford teachers such as Thomas Sampson, the authors of monastic letter books, as well as the collection made by Richard de Bury himself. These collections constitute one important source of evidence for the intellectual life of fourteenth-century England, and using the detailed work of scholars such as Mr. Denholm-Young and Mr. H. G. Richardson they still require to be surveyed as a whole. Valuable as the essays on the ecclesiastical side of medieval society are, however, Mr. Denholm-Young is perhaps at his best when dealing with the lay world. Here in several papers, notably on the knights of the thirteenth century, the tournament, the study of rolls of arms, and the work of Walter of Henley, he has interesting comments to make about the knightly world. He adds to our knowledge, for example, of the number of knights in England, and he also suggests something about the outlook of the gentry. For the fourteenth century, with its problems concerning the role of the gentry in parliament, and its questions concerning the rise of an educated laity, there could scarcely be a more important topic. It is appropriate, and a logical sequel to these papers, therefore, that Mr. Denholm-Young should in fact have dealt more fully with this subject in his recently published work on the country gentry. JOHN TAYLOR. Leeds A HISTORY OF CAERNARVONSHIRE, 1284-1900. By A. H. Dodd. Caernar- vonshire Historical Society, 1968. Pp. 438. Illustrated. 30s. (El -50). The arguments often advanced for and against single authorship of large-scale projects such as county histories are familiar enough. Here one finds a vindication of the former view. The consequent advantages of unity in conception and planning are well demonstrated, while the value of the whole work is enhanced by the realization that few counties in Wales have benefited, as Caernarvonshire has, from the devoted