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and letters and his touching references to the family man with his delight in his garden and in angling add to this Portrait. From 1917 until 1944, he was Headmaster of Aberaeron County Intermediate School and his former colleagues and pupils re- member him with affection. Why pioneer ? The answer lies in this extract "The history books he had read told the story of England and contained little or no reference to the part played by Wales and Welshmen". Commencing during his years at Cardiff and continuing during his early years at Aberaeron, H. T. Evans produced eighteen volumes for schools on aspects of Welsh History. So fresh was his approach that some reviewers of his early works accused him of political bias. During his period as Headmaster he made many innovations at the school, some of which exist to the present day. One of these-unfortunately it has not survived- was the inclusion of navigation in the list of subjects for study at Aberaeron. "I can conceive of nothing more absurd than that young lads from Cardiganshire should have to go to Swansea and Cardiff for training in navigation", he said in a report to the governors. Members of the Society will have read Dr. J. Geraint Jenkins' brief account in Ceredigion, Volume IX Number 2 of the maritime heritage of Ceredigion. This was a taster ("tamed i aros pryd"). This account has been enlarged and complemented with illustrations and diagrams in his latest volume Maritime Heritage. Dr. Jenkins is well known for his numerous publications on Welsh rural crafts and the same attention to detail in this highly entertaining volume dealing with the rise and ultimate decline of the maritime trade. The written and oral evidence provided by the seafarers themselves adds colour to the work. The ship building industry on the Cardiganshire coast was dependant in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on local timber and "local oak from the well-wooded Teify Valley was used for ship building." For more information on trees, forests, the utilization of timber, the contribution made by timber to the economy and industrial development of Wales, one can com- mend to the reader the authoritative work by Dr. William Linnard of the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagans, in Welsh Woods and Forests. The pioneering exploits of the estate owners in planting forests, felling of trees and re-planting to be followed in this century by the work of the Forestry Commission has had an affect-whether it be good or bad has been argued time and time again-on the social and cultural life of the community. This is a volume which will appeal to the botanist, the historian and the economist alike and it is an important study of our heritage. D.M.J. THE TOWNS OF MEDIEVAL WALES, by Ian Soulsby. Phillimore, Chichester, 1983. xiv + 276 pp. £ 9.95. This book covers an aspect of our history about which we know all too little. Its fine appearance is a credit to a firm with a reputation for historical publication, and the fact that the author, Ian Soulsby, was once Director of the Urban Archaeological Research Unit at University College, Cardiff, will recommend it to many. Local people will want to know what it tells them of Cardigan and nearby towns. The book is in three sections. The first two explain the origins and development of early Welsh towns, with their sites and topography, and help us understand a deal about Cardigan, Newport, Haverfordwest and Aberystwyth. There is less to learn of Fishguard, Cilgerran, Newcastle Emlyn, Adpar and Lampeter-but only because those settlements never approached the importance of the others.