Welsh Journals

GREGYNOG. Edited by Glyn Tegai Hughes, Prys Morgan and J. Gareth Thomas. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1977. Pp. 146. 5 plates, 2 maps. £ 5.50. Gregynog Hall must be the most remarkable country house in Wales. For four centuries a series of houses, built on the same site and bearing the name Gregynog, served as country seats for the Blayney and Sudeley families. By the end of the nineteenth century, together with Powys castle and Plas Machynlleth, Gregynog was a pivot of mid-Wales county society. In 1920, however, after a series of financial crises, the house was sold to Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, scions of a wealthy industrial family with strong roots in the county, and over the next thirty years Gregynog achieved great eminence as a centre of cultural and musical activity in Wales. Finally after the sisters' death, the house was bequeathed to the University of Wales and a generation of undergraduates and academics has come to know Gregynog as a very special part of their university life. In short, Gregynog has evolved during this century from a major country house into a national institution. The history of the Gregynog estate and the nature and scale of some of the activities conducted in the house are retailed in the eleven essays contained in this short book. Dr. Prys Morgan outlines the early history of the Blayney family while Dr. David Howell examines the political activities which elevated the house into a major county seat in the nine- teenth century. The county connection waned after the Davies sisters moved in but new activities transformed life in the Hall. The music festivals began almost immediately and John Hywel reminds us how central music-making was to the culture of Gregynog. Other facets of this culture, notably the printing press and the remarkable art col- lection, are discussed in some detail by Dorothy Harrop and Rollo Charles, while Basil Fox explains some of the more unusual aspects of the gardens. There are, however, obvious and serious omissions in this volume. The estate and its owners receive considerable attention but the construc- tion and architectural history of the house itself are almost completely neglected. The history of the name 'Gregynog' is discussed at great length while the Davies family itself, and above all the nature and source of its wealth, are ignored. Yet Gregynog's ascendancy as a cultural and artistic centre may well be attributable to the social conscience of a family which understood only too well the deprivation their money-making was causing in the valleys of south Wales. In this respect, the Distressed Areas Conferences and the meetings dealing with peace and reconstruc- tion are as significant a part of the Gregynog ethos as the music festivals, while the establishment of Coleg Harlech (albeit by a family friend, Thomas Jones) and the endowment of chairs at Aberystwyth, as well as the construction of the Temple of Peace, are as much 'Gregynog' as the house and gardens. The book then falls between two stools. It is neither a complete and detailed study of the aesthetic aspects of Gregynog nor a comprehensive examination of its ethos. At least it is well produced and pleasingly presented, as befits the home of the Gregynog Press. DEIAN HOPKIN Aberystwyth.