Welsh Journals

of Phillips's book, the values of the agrarian details assiduously rooted out from a mass of manuscript material would have been enhanced by comparison with similar activities on other estates in Wales for which there is a variety of printed sources. Beyond the major criticism of a general lack of 'aspic', theme and context, some readers may quibble over such minor points as the reference on p. 49 to the 'Ministry' of Agriculture in 1864, or to the curious observation on p. Ill that the mare Ruperra Jewell 'did not produce a single mare colt'. The spectre, and ultimately the reality, of death duties brought about the final demise of Tredgar as a family estate, and apart from the block of land bought by the Eagle Star Assurance Company in 1956, the bulk of the property passed into the hands of sitting tenants, many of whom have subsequently accumulated considerable fortunes by disposing of land for building and industrial purposes. Under the watchful eye of rapacious bank managers, they have also brought about dramatic changes to the rural landscape as farmsteads and fields have been rationalized, the rural work force decimated, archaeological monuments destroyed and the delicate ecological balance of the countryside endangered. However desirable the rise of a monied rural peasantry may have been in the early decades of this century, one cannot avoid wondering, from the point of view of landscape conservation, whether the complete eclipse of the 'old order' was necessarily a good thing. Roger Phillips has put an enormous amount of work into this book, which is admirably illustrated and remarkably cheap. Despite my criticisms, it is essential reading for historians of south Wales who will doubtless wish to pick up and expand upon many of Phillips's points, including the reclamation of the Wentloog and Caldicot moors, which is surely rich material for a M.A. thesis. Others will be most impressed by the author's skilled use of oral material and may be stimulated to follow his example, by accumulating similar material from elsewhere in Wales, in respect of which time is of the essence. R. J. MOORE-COLYER Aberystwyth THE CAMBRIDGE GUIDE TO THE ARTS IN BRITAIN. Edited by Boris Ford. Volume 4: The Seventeenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. xii, 356. 11 colour plates, 121 black and white. £ 30.00. With its turbulent politics and richly varied art and literature, it is not surprising that the seventeenth century in Britain should have attracted the attention of innumerable scholars and provoked much debate-or that regular attempts should be made to guide the reader through the mass of specialized writing on the period. Some of the best of these attempts in recent years have been devoted to surveying the field of culture. Judith Hook (1976) and Graham Parry (1989) have each tackled the task singlehanded-and with admirable success-while there have been two collective