Welsh Journals

a large area and occur through a considerable thickness of strata. A separate map shows that they can be traced for several miles from the source of the Mule to Duthlas. They are finely exposed in the headwaters of the river Teme. If one leaves the Newtown-Knighton road above the large landslip called the Ring Hole and descends the slope to the Teme, they may be seen for nearly a mile downstream. There can be little doubt that the disturbed character of these contorted beds is due to the sliding and slipping of the mud and silt on the sea floor during deposition. The layers of mud and silt became unstable and slid layer over layer, producing the most remarkable contortions. The sliding or slumping may have been started by movements of the sea floor, either gentle warping movements which gave the sea floor a gradient just too steep for the sediments to remain undisturbed, or perhaps more sudden movements such as those experienced in earthquake shocks may have set in motion the unconsolidated deposits. Normal deposition was resumed after sliding since normally bedded sediments rest on the disturbed bands but sliding was repeated over and over again through a maximum thickness of 2,500 feet of sediment. W. J. PUGH. THE BALLADS OF Montgomeryshire. By A. Stanley Davies. Published by the Author at 11, Broad Street, Welshpool, in 1938. Pp. 57 .2/6; postage twopence. This little book should appeal to those who are interested in a culture that is rapidly passing away. The author devotes a chapter each to the Ballad Writers, the Ballad Singers, the Ballad Tunes, and to a description of some ballads. Appendix 1 gives a list of printed ballads relating to Montgomeryshire, and Appendix 2 deals with the ballads of YWAIN Meirion. Mr. Davies points out that, until well into the middle of the XIX. century, the place of a vernacular press was taken in Wales by the ballads, which formed an important means of distributing local and foreign news. The ballads, therefore, reflect the life of past generations, especially, apparently, their fights, their murders, and their ghosts. Within living memory the ballad singers attended the country fairs, and the author has collected a considerable number of ballads, one of which was composed as late as 1934. Mr. Davies has gathered a lot of curious and intimate lore dealing with the county. He has several times contributed papers to the Montgomeryshire Collections, and in this private volume he has broken new and interesting ground. His book deserves to be as popular as the old ballads, which he has collected, were in their day. R.U.S.