Welsh Journals

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ORIELTON: THE HUMAN AND NATURAL HISTORY OF A WELSH MANOR. By Ronald Lockley. London, 1977. Pp. 332. £ 5.95. Ronald Lockley is a perceptive naturalist and this book is an account of his ten years' work at Orielton prior to its sale to the Field Studies Council. Readers seeking lively descriptions of Orielton's gardens, woods and wildlife will find them here, but they will look in vain for an account of the architecture of the splendid house. Those interested in the Owens of Anglesey and Orielton will find the details in Francis Jones's paper on them in The Pembrokeshire Historian, 1974, rather than in the few pages devoted to the family in Lockley's book. One cannot find in the latter clues to the social life of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Orielton nor links with the lands which sustained it. The estate included a sizeable part of the Pembrokshire anthracite coalfield around the upper Cleddau, centring on Landshipping, where the Owens had a second house; there were also hundreds of acres of good arable land in south Pembrokeshire. All this provided a more than adequate competence, but election expenses and extravagance forced the sale of all the lands, and of Orielton house, by 1857. A number of later occupiers, including servicemen in World War II, followed, and Lockley bought a deteriorating house, farm and over- mature woods. They became and remain a sanctuary for wildlife and a focus for its study. It was at Orielton in 1954-59 that Lockley carried out the experimental work described in The Private Life of the Rabbit. These animals feature briefly in the book but, apart from his sons, his Spanish staff and some well-known visiting naturalists, the main characters are closely observed badgers, hares, bats, ants, water-voles, ravens and birds of prey; many are well illustrated by C. F. Tunnicliffe. The author is an acute observer and the great value of the book will be in encouraging readers to carry out similar studies, possibly with similar patience and dedication. This, then, is not an historian's but a natural historian's book. But Lockley has contributed a great deal to the recent history of Pembroke- shire in so far as its twentieth-century discovery by naturalists and knowledgeable tourists is part of its story. From his pre-war days in Skokholm until he left Orielton for New Zealand, he stimulated and encouraged other naturalists. Many who still work in Pembrokeshire, or visit Orielton Field Centre, salute gratefully his pioneer studies, carried out, as at Orielton, under considerable difficulties. They will read with interest this account of his work there. MARGARET DAVIES Tenby THE UNITY OF Barmouth. By Lewis Lloyd. Gwynedd Archives Services, 1977. Pp. 236. £ 3.00. This is an edition of the disbursement book of two Mawddach-built sloops, both named Unity, between 1781 and 1799. It is rare for such records to survive from this period and its value is correspondingly high, for only through the study of such documents can a more accurate picture of maritime history be drawn.