Welsh Journals

political scientists; but, of course, the Scottish referendum raised questions of more vital constitutional moment than its Welsh counterpart. The Welsh Veto is a workmanlike and thorough book which maintains a high standard of scholarly accuracy throughout. But its tone is elegaic as if its authors realise that their hopes for Wales are unlikely to be achieved. In retrospect it seems that an all-Wales tier of government could most easily have been secured in the late 1960s as part of the process of local government reform; but this, ironically, was vetoed by Willie Ross, on the grounds that it would encourage the SNP! In the aftermath of the devolution fiasco, The Welsh Veto poses the uneasy question not only of whether a Welsh nation can survive without a political forum, but whether there will remain any content to the idea of Welshness at all, or whether Wales is doomed to become, in Engels's graphic words, a 'remnant people-mercilessly crushed-by the course of history'. Brasenose College, VERNON BOGDANOR Oxford THE Ewenny POTTERIES. By J. M. Lewis. National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 1982. Pp. x, 126. Numerous figs. & pis. £ 7.75 ( £ 8.75 by post). This title belies much that is of broad interest on a physically scattered, though socially discrete, group of country potteries which, between the later eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, flourished on a prominent source of boulder clay a short distance to the south of the market town of Bridgend. The staple production of these potteries consisted of extensive quantities of red earthenware vessels for use in farm dairies, kitchens and throughout households in western Glamorgan and further afield. Considerably smaller amounts of decorated wares for keepsakes or presentation pieces were also made, yet it remains somewhat ironic that these constitute the major element in the historical reputation of the Ewenny kilns. Over the past fifty years the National Museum of Wales has shown great concern in recovering details of the historical development and former products of the potteries, culminating in 1980 with the removal of probably the last two surviving traditional kilns; at present they await re-erection at the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagans. Mr. Lewis knows this background well. Indeed, his personal interest in the potteries and potters of Ewenny extends back many years; but here, in a volume produced as part of the National Museum's 75th Anniversary celebrations, he is given the opportunity to produce a fairly comprehensive account of this local industry based on documentary sources, oral records and the pottery itself. The book succeeds admirably in these aims and, as is so rarely done, the author draws together the many intriguing art-historical, archaeological, economic and social strands which make up such a total history.