Welsh Journals

drawn from the events of the day. J. R. S. Whiting is not inexperienced in exploring the less frequented by-ways of historical source material. His previous publications include similar studies of Trade Tokens (1971) and Commemorative Medals (1972); and as was the case with these earlier volumes, the present one began to take shape through work done in the school classroom. Indeed, considered simply as a collection of raw material from which an imaginative teacher might construct a series of lively history lessons, the book is undoubtedly successful. But whether it is equally successful in appealing to the general reader is more open to question. For one thing, Dr. Whiting is perhaps over-ambitious in trying to say something about every single card individually: each of the fourteen packs has a specific theme ('The Knavery of the Rump', the 'Horrid Popish Plot', Monmouth's Rebellion, and so on), and his method is to put the cards into roughly chronological order (no mean achievement in itself), and then to identify and explain the illustration on each card in turn. But the trouble is that the resulting account tends to be rather disjointed and indigestible, more like an illustrated catalogue (some five hundred of the cards are reproduced) than a coherent historical narrative. On the other hand, Dr. Whiting is certainly too reticent about discussing the important question raised in his preface, of whether the cards 'reflect the feelings and rumours of the period'. Despite the blatantly royalist tone of the Rump pack of 1681, or the fiercely anti-Catholic feelings evident in those concerned with the 'plots' of the 1670s and 1680s, or the firm support for Dr. Sacheverell displayed by the pack engraved (but apparently never put on sale) shortly after his trial in 1710, the author never stands back sufficiently from his detailed examination of the cards to give us his evaluation of their significance as evidence of popular opinion or of propaganda. No doubt he would discuss these matters with his pupils in the classroom: so why not also with his readers? HUGH DUNTHORNE Swansea. EDWARD LHUYD: THE MAKING OF A SCIENTIST. By Brinley F. Roberts. (G. J. Williams Memorial Lecture). University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1980. Pp. 21. 90p. The late Professor G. J. Williams devoted many years' research and thought to a study of the enigmatic Welsh polymath Edward Williams, better known as lolo Morgannwg. He would have relished the lecture Professor Brynley Roberts delivered as his Memorial Lecture not only as a model of scholarship but also as corroboration of the importance of relating a man to his background. Without knowledge of Edward Lhuyd's up-bringing, scholars could easily assume that his interest in science and scientific method was engendered by his fortuitous early link with the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and its consequences. Professor Roberts shows in this brief but illuminating study that Oxford in 1682 received in Lhuyd a young man who was already 'a trained and experienced botanist'.