Welsh Journals

structured the communities contained within them.3 From the point where the Teifi, flowing in a northerly direction, leaves its headwaters and turns suddenly south to begin its reluctant meander through Cors Caron before flowing hurriedly down past the town and into the broadening valley below, the land is relatively rich, its cultivation diversified and the farms larger than on the hills on either side. On the valley bottom, too, there are signs of ancient habitations and settled cultures. Further down towards Lampeter there were small estates and a few larger ones, like Derry Ormond, with plantations and elegant avenues of trees to lend dignity to the view. To traverse that way, then as now, was to pass from the vast upland parishes of Caron and Llanddewibrefi down to small, highly cultivated, well-populated parishes with lovely names Llanfair Clydogau, Cellan, Betws Bledrws, Llangybi and so again on to the lower slopes of Mynydd Bach, to Llangeitho, Llanbadarn Odwyn, Gartheli and back to Swyddffynnon. Here was a landscape in process of being made. It was a region of small farms, some of them minute, scarcely more than an acre or so, but recently enclosed out of the commons. Some were 'tai unnos', hovels made of clods of earth and wattle supported by unhewn stones. These were the abodes of the rural poor. In Llanfair Clydogau, for example, there were 96 holdings of one acre or more, the average size being about 50 acres. Only 1 farms were over 100 acres, and more than half of the remainder, 47 in all, were of less than 20 acres. The pattern of occupation was very similar in neighbouring Cellan, as was also the pattern of ownership. The small farmers, and likewise many of the labourers, were tenants of large proprietors, such as J. S. Harford of Falcondale, John Jones of Derry Ormond, W. E. Powell of Nanteos, and Lord Lisburne of Trawsgoed. Some of the more recently enclosed holdings were still independent, in the sense that they had not yet been absorbed into the large estates or incorporated into adjacent farms. 4 Such are reminiscent of the small holdings identified by Dr. David Jenkins as 'lle un buwch', 'lie ceffyl' and so on, which had essential structural roles in the economic and social nexus of the farming communities.5 But whatever their size and location, all were involved in the endless struggle to turn marginal land, very often undrained, virgin moorland, into cultivable land sufficient to maintain a family, pay the rent and taxes and, with luck (or by the grace of God), provide a small surplus. On the eastern side of the valley was an entirely different world. Here were high moorlands and mountains with harsh, forbidding names Cam Helen, Bryn Brawd, Drum Ddu-and above them all high immemorial peaks Y Drygau Fawr and Y Gawryw. This was like the