Welsh Journals

for omits read a theulu rriwalla6n m. Vryen yn ymladd ar Saeson; p. 204, Gwynvydedic/ Gwynuededic; p. 205, (un)/vn; ibid., Dyvetj Dyfet; p. 228, hon/honn, genedl/genedyl, avon/auon, a Hafren delete a, porthva/porthua, yg/y (in rather less than six lines of print this is a large number of misreadings); p. 230, 1. 4, mertin/mertyn. The book thus has a number of flaws, some more serious than others. Nevertheless, they affect only certain aspects of it, and for the most part it is a very highly valuable work which will be welcomed and gladly used by Celticists. Edinburgh. KENNETH JACKSON. LIFE IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. By A. H. Dodd. Batsford, London, 1961. Pp. 176. 21s. As a brief popular introduction to English society in the first Elizabethan age this book could hardly be bettered. It is divided into nine chapters: kingdom, queen, and court; country life; town life; home life; the church; school and college; arts and fashions; the poor; travel at home; and adventure abroad. None is longer than some twenty pages of text plenti- fully besprinkled with illustrations, but each is a model of clarity, conciseness, and organization. The illustrations from contemporary sources, literary and pictorial (there are over 120 of the latter), are effectively chosen. Professor Dodd's style, it need hardly be added, is as spirited, witty, and trenchant as his readers will have come to expect. While the book is not entitled 'Life in Elizabethan England and Wales', it might very well have been so described. For Professor Dodd knows his Wales far too well to fall into the bad habits of many writers on 'British' history who seldom raise their eyes beyond the confines of the Home Counties. He pays due attention to the north and west of the queen's realm. Many of his most telling illustrations are drawn from Welsh and Marcher sources: Ludlow's ceremonial masques and banquets and Shrewsbury's unruly Welsh mobs at its assize; Thomas Myddelton, successful city merchant, and John Wynn, hardly less successful landed gentleman; recusancy in Anglesey and the New Testament at Abergwili; Conway's 'Plas Mawr' and Cardiff's little bridge. These, and many others, reveal not only the author's expert knowledge of his native Wales but his deep-seated affection for it no less. Swansea. GLANMOR WILLIAMS. THE CANALS OF SOUTH WALES AND THE BORDER. By Charles Hadfield. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, and Phoenix House, Ltd., London, 1960. Pp. 272. 30s. The digging of canals was the first major step in turning south Wales into an integrated industrial region. The activity has long merited the