Welsh Journals

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argues that 'there is much to be said for a non-democratic, dynastic, or hierarchic authority, such as the Habsburgs or the Ontario establishment' (p. 120). Peter Marshall's initial chapter, on the period 1763 to 1815, is disappointingly short and its stilted style, double negatives and initial subordinate clauses make it difficult reading. Generally, this is a good collection on an interesting theme. It would have been useful to have had more on Quebec and how the English- speaking triangle was viewed there and, more widely, something on regional diversity within the North American states. As it stands, however, the book makes a valuable contribution to understanding the emergence of a Canadian nation, and its peculiar qualities of nationhood. MICHAEL KEATING University of Western Ontario AN ANGLO-WELSH TEACHING DYNASTY: THE ADAMS FAMILY FROM THE 1840s TO THE 1930s. By W. W. Marsdon. Woburn Press, 1997. Pp. 296. £ 29.50 hardback, £ 16.50 paperback. Families of teachers are common in Wales but memories of them tend to be anecdotal. There has been no attempt to subject them to stern historical scrutiny and none on this scale in England either. This is hardly surprising given the difficulties of such longitudinal investigations. There are few examples of successive generations making a sufficient impact to find their place in the requisite range of records. There are few historians with sufficient diligence to pursue those diversified and diffused records. When the task is attempted by an authority in the history of education the result is a compelling personal story which has considerably wider significance. The first of the dynasty was John Adams, born in Castlemartin, Pem- brokeshire, in 1817 and, like so many of his contemporaries, most influenced by his Sunday school, at which he began to teach at the age of sixteen. From 1843 to 1848 he taught at the Anglican Stackpole National School but then made an interesting move to the newly established undenominational British School in Pembroke Dock. His wife was appointed mistress. The lure seemed to be that this new school was to operate on pupil-teacher lines, a considerable educational improvement on the monitorial system. Matthew Arnold was to call it 'the best school I have met with in South Wales'. In 1855 Adams moved to Goat Street British School in Swansea, soon to be as efficient as any in England or Wales, according to HMI. The curriculum was, for the time, broad, balanced and