Welsh Journals

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It is to be regretted that no opportunity presented itself to discuss in a general way the contents of these documents, of what might be gleaned about moveable goods, realty and a monied economy in what was a period of transformation. Similarly, little mention is made whether the material can shed light on religious changes, of how, for example, the Brecon records appear in the context of the ongoing debate about the value of preambles to wills as an accurate reflection of individual religious sentiment. Had they become common formulae, the product of clerical practice? In another context, Miss Jones indicates that clerical practice did have a significant intervention, namely in the process of anglicising Welsh personal names and place names, notably in drafting the administration bonds. Even so, the extant Christian names and the patronymic patterns attest to a continuing homogeneous Welsh community, where the comparatively small range of established Welsh male, and especially female, Christian names was only slowly betraying the intrusion of wider influences, as seen in the adoption of names like Harry and especially Elizabeth. All told, therefore, the indexes themselves give much food for thought besides being also a powerful help to getting at the original material. W. P. GRIFFITH Bangor REGIONS AND INDUSTRIES: A PERSPECTIVE ON THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN. Edited by Pat Hudson. Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp. xiii, 277. £ 30.00 After a very lucid introduction by the editor, and a well-argued plea for bringing back the region into the forefront of historical analysis of the industrial revolution period, the reader is offered a series of papers on different areas of the British Isles. Although the coverage is less than comprehensive-a notable omission is a paper on the London region-the book provides some readable studies of the process of industrialization (and, in some cases, de-industrialization) in certain regions- Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, the west Midlands, Cumbria, the Weald, the West of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and a comparison of the north- east of England and south Wales (by Neil Evans). Whilst maps of the regions covered are generally provided, it is a pity that this is not so in three of the nine chapters. Most of the studies are concerned with the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and there is a general tendency for attention to be focussed on the relevance or otherwise of the concept of proto-industrialization as an analytical device in explaining industrialization. The general conclusion is that, although the concept has its limitations, it does provide the basis for framing new perspectives on, and new questions about, the industrialisation process. Somewhat disappointingly, the book concentrates on illuminating these questions rather than trying to provide answers. Most of the papers merely present a summary of evidence and provide interpretations based on existing secondary sources.