Welsh Journals

publisher of some advanced Protestant and humanist texts in Welsh in the reign of James I. Other major articles in the Journal include an account by Major Francis Jones on the Old Mansion at Llandeilo Abercywyn, and some further correspondence by George White field with other early Methodists, including Wesley and Howell Harris. An interesting series of booklets, printing original documentary material for the history of Ceredigion and published by the Department of Extra-Mural Studies at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, is launched with Gerald Morgan's work, Circulating Schools in Cardiganshire, 1738-77, Occasional papers in Ceredigion History, No. 1. It is available from the Department, 10-11 Laura Place, Aberystwyth SY23 2AX. A paperback version has been issued of Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 (Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 191, £ 5.95). It is a stimulating and learned survey which raises themes of intense interest to Welsh historians. Indeed, Welsh nationhood and nationalism afford many examples to sustain the author's argument. He is equally cogent on the invention of concepts of nationalism at the turn of the nineteenth century, the 'proto-nationalism' that followed, the political, ethnic and cultural transformation of the idea of nationalism in the years down to 1914, and the enthronement of 'the principle of nationality' after the Treaty of Versailles. Some historians will take issue with Hobsbawm's formulations of nationality, as opposed to nationalism, in the areas of linguistic consciousness and social culture. His emphasis on the fallacies and historical decline of the nationalist idea since 1950 reads oddly, in the light of developments in eastern Europe especially. since the book first appeared in 1990. Where, indeed, is 'gallant little Lithuania' here? Nevertheless, this sparkling volume, based on the 1985 Wiles lectures in Belfast. provides a goad and stimulant to anyone concerned with the myths, realities, components and pitfalls of national identity, not least in Wales. J. B. Sinclair and R. W. D. Fenn, Marching to Zion: Radnorshire Chapels (Cadoc Books, pp. 160, £ 7.00 plus £ 1.00 postage and packing), is a delightful account of the historical and social context of Radnorshire's nonconformist chapels from the seventeenth century to the late twentieth. The main features are 144 splendid plates. to which Ordnance Survey grid references are attached, in which Baptist chapels of course feature with special prominence. But there is also a useful brief account of the architectural, financial and cultural aspects, along with a discussion of names and inscriptions. The discussion of recent decades is, inevitably, one of decline and occasional demolition, but a startling exception, and reminder of changing values, is