Welsh Journals

The moral, presumably, is to always make sure your right hand knows what your left is doing. But the author should have proof-read these pages. He must have been responsible for the bibliography. Here omissions afford the surprise. With all due respect, Giles, J. A. does not provide the best edition of Gildas (indicative of Dr. Hardinge's general neglect of Wales); and it was evidently possible, while noting R. P. C. Hanson's book on Saint Patrick (1968), to overlook Kathleen Hughes, The Church in Early Irish Society (1966) (when his book centres on Ireland, despite its title, and Dr. Hardinge is even apparently indebted to her), not to mention D. A. Binchy's review of the Patrician problem in Studia Hibernica (1962) or N. K. Chadwick, The Age of the Saints in the Celtic Church (1961, reprinted 1963)-and one could go on. Basically the book is concerned with the way in which (as it is argued) an individualistic Celtic Church expounded the Scriptures in the light of its own interpretation, and evolved independently its doctrinal beliefs and ritual practices. Dr. Hardinge makes some interesting observations on Celtic monasteries as Old Testament 'cities' (and on the possible matrimonial status of some early saints), but there is no analysis of the growth of Celtic monasticism. Indeed, this is the trouble with the whole book: it seems premature. Virtually every point touched upon requires further comment or study, not least the allegedly continuing influence of Pelagianism. Dr. Hardinge should perhaps devote more detailed attention in future to particular topics. There is no doubt that he is interested in areas of life in the Celtic Church which do require more systematic investigation. D. P. KIRBY Aberystwyth. CASTLES IN ENGLAND AND WALES. By W. Douglas Simpson. B. T. Batsford Limited, London, 1969. Pp. x, 174; 37 half-tone illustrations, 23 text drawings. £ 2.10. No one had a more comprehensive knowledge of the castles of Britain than the late Dr. Douglas Simpson, who was seeing this volume through the press at the time of his death in 1968. Its aim, he tells us, is to give a fair picture of the origin, development and decline of the English castle, and to set forth the part that our castles have played in the political and social evolution of England and Wales; and also to give some account, albeit in summary fashion, of the history of each castle selected for treatment. The result is a very good popular introduction to the subject, written with all the author's characteristic vigour of style, idiosyncratic terminology, and delight in literary allusion and quotation. Students familiar with Dr. Simpson's earlier writings will not be surprised to see such phrases as 'Castles of Enceinte' and 'Bastard Feudalism' appearing in the chapter headings, but it is perhaps new to find the inner ward of Framlingham, or of Rhuddlan, dubbed a Kernburg. However, this is a book for the amateur rather than the scholar, and references to sources are few. The half-tone illustrations are well chosen and of excellent quality, giving a wonderful collective impression of the wealth and variety of the examples of the medieval military architect's genius that survive throughout England and Wales from the four and a half centuries after