Welsh Journals

Dr. Ovendale writes timidly and tentatively. His book is 'diplomatic history'; it records exchanges between governments without fully ex- plaining why those governments were there and why they did what they did. Only over South Africa in September 1939 does the author provide insights into the domestic constraints on governmental policies. Here, however, he is extremely interesting on Smuts's manoeuvres to defeat Hertzog by relying on a majority in the existing parliament and on the governor-general's refusal to allow Hertzog to dissolve. He quotes Pirow's judgment that the eventual result of Smuts's coup would be the defeat of English-speaking South Africans by the Dutch-speaking section of the community, as took place after the war. The copy-editing and the proof-reading are inadequate. The painful solecism of 'unequivocably' is let pass on three occasions. There are numerous misprints-an example is Eden's being 'provoked into a retreat' where the original is 'retort' (p. 62). Vansittart is alleged to have had a report of Nazi-Soviet contacts through General 'Sirorg' who was, in fact, Sirovy. However, the University of Wales Press have produced a solid, durable and handsome book and have put the footnotes in the proper place. R. A. C. PARKER The Queen's College, Oxford THE SOUTH WALES LANDSCAPE. By Moelwyn Williams. Hodder and Stoughton, 1975. Pp. 271, maps, plates. £ 5.95. The man-created landscapes of no fewer than seven of the old counties of South Wales are treated in this book. They are, with their pre-1974 names, the counties of Cardigan, Radnor, Pembroke, Carmarthen, Brecon, Glamorgan, and Monmouth. It is a tall order to do justice to the problems of depicting and interpreting their landscapes, especially as the series within which the book was conceived- The Making of the English Landscape'-consists of single-county volumes. The guiding editorial hand behind them all is that of W. G. Hoskins, and it is rich evidence of his success in sponsoring a unique school of landscape historians. But (risking the old charge of hyper-sensitivity in such matters) has the Welsh landscape had a fair deal? Professor Hoskins simply adds a sentence to his standard introduction, where he defends the single-county approach: 'On the other hand, Wales, for so long a poverty-stricken country, despite its magnificent scenery, is better treated in two large areas-North and South.' The idea is arguable: why not treat, then, the four poverty-stricken counties of northernmost England in one volume, or give Wales more than two, doubling the ration with others for Mid-Wales and Dyfed? Certainly Dr. Williams has done his best to blaze a trail into the broad vistas that confronted him, in terms of both time and space. He adopts a mainly chronological plan, so much so that the opening chapter, although