Welsh Journals

emosiwn aelodau'r seiadau cyntaf, wedi'i ysgrifennu'n rhugl a chryno. Y mae'n ddisgrifiad sydd yn esbonio inni'n fwy byw nag a wnaed erioed o'r blaen agwedd aelodau cyffredin y seiad a'r atyniadau a'u cyfareddodd i ymaelodi ynddi ac, yn bwysicach fyth, i ddal i'w mynychu. Dyma gyfraniad hynod ddadlennol a gwreiddiol i hanes a seicoleg crefydd yng Nghymru. [This is a most promising first book by a young history authoress. Dr White's study of the sixty or so Methodist societies of Carmarthenshire between c. 1735 and 1750 has two particularly impressive features. One, it concentrates not on outstanding Methodist leaders but on the rank-and- file members. Second, it is firmly based on close and critical analysis of original contemporary sources of every kind. It succeeds in presenting the positive aspects of Methodist appeal as well as the negative ones of the failures and shortcomings of the Established Church. The outcome is a splendidly convincing and original portrait of early-Methodist emotional and psychological responses.] GLANMOR WILLIAMS Swansea SPIRITUAL PILGRIM. A Reassessment OF THE Life OF THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. By Edwin Welch. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1995. Pp. xvi, 233. £ 30. Lady Huntingdon (1707-91) instructed her executors to discourage and if possible to prevent 'any publication of my life'. It would seem that she herself has contributed to her desired result for, if rumours are to be believed, more than one would-be biographer has resigned in face of her vast and scattered correspondence. But Dr Welch is made of sterner stuff. He combines the professional archivist's terrier-like tenacity with the hardiness of one who has sojourned in Canada's northern climes. Moreover, he has spent many years listing relevant materials in the possession of the Cheshunt College Foundation, and these, together with other manuscripts, are now fully utilized for the first time. In all of this the author has rendered an invaluable service to eighteenth-century scholarship. We are made aware of the deprivations of the countess's upbringing; the details of her pedigree are patiently recorded; the tensions within her family are not overlooked; and her resourcefulness, following the death of