Welsh Journals

even read the doctor's certificate, a thing nobody had ever done before. He read This is to certify that Mr. David Canolwyn Davies is suffering from severe carrotin poisoning (with obsessional neurosis) and is unfit to follow his occupation at present." With a swish of his tail, Mr. Davies trotted down to post the certificate, pausing for a moment at the garden gate to see if the 5.30 plate was still on the letter-box, and then mumbling contentedly to himself, What a boon is good sight, for I needn't hurry now." G. CHANGE THOUGH NOT DECAY The sale of the Penrice Estate this year has altered a pattern of life that has existed in south-west Gower since the latter part of the seventeenth century. Our landlords over the centuries, the Franklins and later the Talbots, exerted a remarkable influence over the social life of Gower and they represented a way of life that has been now radically changed by a handshake over an office table between the London valuer and the old tenant farmer, who has now, become almost without exception, his own landlord. Fortunately Gower has been subjected to this change in the most prosperous period of British farming this fact, coupled with the generous terms on which the farms were offered to the tenants, has prevented a situation arising in which harshness and greed on one side, and stubbornness on the other could have disrupted the whole community consequently there is a fairly general feeling of goodwill and understanding. By many of the older people who knew the Castle at the height of its glory, and appreciated the personal kindness of its owners, the change is regretted-but the younger ones see in it the march of progress and the opportunity to expand and modernise. It should be recorded that the Estate has been a good landlord. Rents have been low, farm-houses and farm buildings have been kept in a reasonable state of repair and tenancies have been allowed to follow from father to son or to the next-of-kin, if so desired. Inter- ference in methods of agriculture have been unknown, and in general relationships between landlord and tenant have been cordial and established on a firm basis. Differences between landlord and tenant, or between one tenant and another were usually amicably settled at the annual court leet, or leet court as we called it; here the law of custom prevailed, not the law of the statute book. A tenant could, of course, disagree with the verdict and appeal for redress in the courts of law, but he did not do this lightly, since he placed himself in danger of being given twelve months' notice to quit his tenancy, unless he could prove that he was the victim of grave misjustice. This may seem a harsh