Welsh Journals

BOOK REVIEWS CARDIFF A History of the City, by William Rees. Cardiff, 1962. pp. 178 + 29 plates. 25s. The Corporation of the City of Cardiff has done well by its citizens to publish this sumptuously-produced volume, and Professor Emeritus William Rees has put us into further indebtedness by writing this excellent history and in choosing its admirable illustrations. As we should expect from an historian whose interests are primarily medieval, the history is stronger (and larger) on the earlier periods of Cardiff history than on the more recent. Of the 173 pages of text, forty are devoted to Roman and Medieval Cardiff, a hundred to the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, but only thirty-two to the Reformed Borough from 1835 to the present time. The result is that we get a sub- stantial outline of the early period, a pretty full account of the middle period, but only a very brief sketch of the great commercial and industrial expansion of the city during the last century. This brevity of treatment of the most recent period will disappoint those whose interest is mainly in the modern economic history of the City, and one might have expected that the Professor Emeritus would have spared more than a bare dozen lines for the develop- ment of one of the City's chief assets-the University College of Soutn*Wales and Monmouthshire. But the fact is that far more research needs to be done on the recent economic history of Cardiff before it can be at all fully expound- ed in proper perspective, and Professor Rees is not to be blamed for confining himself, in a work of this kind, to a clear and succinct account of what is already known. One may perhaps regret that space was not found for a short bibliography of the more important books and source materials relevant to the subject. But there is no doubt that the citizens of Cardiff have now been provided with a general history of their remarkable City of which they can justly be proud, and it is much to be hoped that this volume will not only stimulate the public interest in the subject, but also will encourage further enquiry into the lesser-known aspects of its history. S. B. CltRIUES THE VALE OF GLAMORGAN. Studies in landscape and history, by Henry John Randall. Newport, 1961. pp. xv. 100, plates, maps, and text figures. 2ij. There was a time when field work was considered the special preserve of the military historian and the archaeologist. Today the local historian is urged to arm himself with as many ancillary disciplines as possible. He must, inter alia, know some basic facts about the geology of the area he is studying he must be familiar with its landscape the hard but best way-on