Welsh Journals

sequences. Although Dr. Jones has consulted an enormous mass of private papers (some of which must have been very difficult to trace) in the preparation of his book, this failure to ask of his material what most modern historians would see as the fundamental questions, will inevitably leave many readers with the feeling that the wood has been lost among the trees. Dr. Jones is clearly fascinated by the interplay of personalities and political manoeuvre between political giants like Gladstone, Salisbury and Joseph Chamberlain. One either shares his fascination or one does not. The book is quite unrealistically priced at £ 6.40. This must put it out of the range of all but a few individuals and even of some libraries. The footnotes are printed at the foot of the pages rather than at the end of the book. Although some scholars regard this as important, it is questionable whether it is justified in view of the extra cost involved. The price might also have been reduced by omitting the eighteen pages of potted biographies printed at the end under the title 'Portrait Gallery'. They contain little that is not in the Dictionary of National Biography and the relevance of some items of information (for example, that Arthur Elliot had a leg amputated at the age of four or that Alfred Milner's mother was older than his father) escaped the present reviewer. The chronological table at the beginning, on the other hand, is useful. Ireland and the effect of 1884 on Parnell's party naturally loom large in the book. Wales does not. The question of how the proposed reduction in the number of Irish seats should affect the number allowed for Wales and Scotland was raised intermittently. Local issues emerge occasionally, for example, the deep conservative suspicions aroused by the suggestion that Haverfordwest and Pembroke should be merged into one con- stituency. But generally speaking this is a book that concerns itself strictly, some would say too strictly, with politics at the centre and the rest of the country is a mere backdrop for the London stage. M. E. CHAMBERLAIN Swansea. THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY IN SOUTH WEST WALES AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. By David Jenkins. University of Wales Press, 1971. Pp. 291. £ 3.00. This study sets out to 'record and describe' the agricultural community of south Cardiganshire at the start of the present century. Within this area, the parish of Troed-yr-aur is selected for detailed investigation. Mr. Jenkins emphasizes throughout that this was a closely-knit, 'face-to- face' community. He points to three dominant types of relationship within it, based in turn on the requirements of working the land, on kinship and on religious nonconformity. Working the land as scattered, small farm units in a pre-machine age led to close contact between organized groups of farmers. This kind of co-operation was impossible at corn harvest when the labour problem was solved by resort to the 'potato work group' attached to each farm and comprising neighbouring cottagers. Each farm work group constituted a