Welsh Journals

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home, about children in the community, or children's leisure outside school: all very fertile ares for exploring gender in childhood. A further fundamental problem is that the 'specifically Welsh' nature of childhood is never in fact explored. Just because childhoods have been in Wales, it does not follow that they are specifically Welsh: this can only be demonstrated through comparisons with non-Welsh childhoods. The overwhelming emphasis on education exacerbates this difficulty. In a more particular way there are certainly worthwhile essays here. Graham Goode and Sara Delamont provide vivid examples of the lifelong resentment often felt by women who as girls were denied the opportunity of taking up the grammar school scholarships which they had won in the inter-war years. Patricia Daniel's study of contemporary playground games and rhymes gives a fascinating account of how girls can learn to assert themselves at school. And Jane Salisbury's discussion of attempts through 'positive action' to encourage girls to think more widely of possible career choices is especially lively, both in argument and in her quotations from the girls themselves. In short, if the pretensions of its title and blurb are disregarded, this is a useful collection on gender in (mainly twentieth century) Welsh education. PAUL THOMPSON Essex OLD COLLEGE ABERYSTWYTH. THE EVOLUTION OF A HIGH VICTORIAN BUILDING. By J. Roger Webster. University of Wales Press, 1995. Pp. 98. £ 10.95. From its beautifully structured opening paragraphs to its prophetic closing sentence this rich and elegant book enthralled me, as much by the author's unconcealed delight with his subject as by his mastery of the architectural detail of the building and its historical context. For the author who, alas, never lived to see his book in its finished form, its writing was clearly a labour of love. Nor should we wonder at that. Old College, Aberystwyth, is surely one of the most beautiful buildings of its kind in Wales, indeed, in Britain. From whatever angle one views it and in whatever light; from the promenade above the sea to which it seems inseparably to belong, or from the elegant classical terraces of Laura Place which confront its strikingly original entrance porch on the King Street side; or even from much greater distances from the cliffs above Clarach, for example, when its windows reflect the setting sun like so many gems set in a glowing, sculptured shape