Welsh Journals

THE WELSH PORT BOOKS By E.A.LewisyM.A. Cymmrodorion Record Series. xii. 1927 Welsh History has been largely written from literary sources which at the best give a general impression. In some spheres, particularly the eco- nomic, the result is not satisfactory. The ques- tion always remains whether the references, how- ever varied, are sufficiently representative to provide the basis for safe generalisation. More precise information can be gleaned from official documents, if they can be found. Any discussion of the nature and volume of trade must obviously depend on such material. It is, therefore, fortu- nate for our better understanding of the position in Elizabethan Wales, that Dr. Lewis has un- earthed and here carefully edited a fairly repre- sentative sample of the Welsh Port Books. If he could now find one or two Account Books of Welsh merchants (which it is to be feared is too much to hope for in this period) a really good description of the activities of merchants and shippers in the second part of the sixteenth cen- tury could be given. Still he has put us under a great debt for what he has accomplished. Dr. Lewis points out that the Port Books begin at the juncture when the Welsh customs system was bieng assimilated to that of England, the accounts being kept under the supervision of the three Head Ports of Cardiff, Milford and Chester, under which were grouped all the ports and creeks from Chepstow to Chester. The extant Port Books cover the ground rather unequally with respect both to area and time. They are least adequate for the Head Port of Cardiff. This is unfortunate, because a fuller account of developments in Mon- mouthshire and Glamorganshire during the period would be valuable. The Penshurst MSS., for in- stance, have references to exports of iron from Glamorgan to Ireland in 1569-70, which in the absence of other evidence must be taken as ex- ceptional. When the Port Books for this area became more abundant in the latter part of the century, it is quite clear that coal has become an important article in Welsh foreign trade. By analysis of his material, Dr. Lewis is able to show the nature and direction of trade, and he discovers that with an increase of the export of coal, e.g., to France, there was a falling off in that of Welsh friezes and cottons. The decline in the woollen industry is accompanied by a rise in the export of raw wool, for sheep grazing seems to have been extending. The local historian will find much to interest him in this volume. Appen- dix A gives sixteenth century accounts of the ports and creeks of Wales with which may be compared the report made by Thomas Phaer at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and printed in Archaeologia Cambrensis, sixth series, vol. xi (191 1). The two indexes provided by Dr. Lewis are very helpful; one is a guide to the master mariners, merchants, ships and places mentioned, and the other to the articles which entered into Welsh maritime trade in the days of Elizabeth. J.F.R. A MISCELLANY OF TRACTS AND PAMPHLETS Ed. by.4.C.WardM.I. Oxford University Press. 2s. nett Described in the preface as "an anthology of English pamphlet literature", this miscellany con- tains twenty tracts covering a period of four centuries,-from the sixteenth to the twentieth. For satisfactory reasons the Martin Marprelate controversy (with which John Penry's name is associated) is not included, but Welshmen will welcome Dr. Richard Price's "A Discourse on the Love of our Country". Some of the greatest names in English literature are found here, and although much of the interest is now inevitably lost, these tracts will be read for their lively wit and good sense, no less than for their association with great historical movements. T.H.J. THE CULTURE AND TRADITIONS OF WALES By T. Gwynn Jones,M.A. Hughes and Son. 6d. This is a valuable addition to the "Traethodau'r Deyrnas" series, and will be a distinct help to- wards (to quote some words from the foreword) a "clear, radical thinking, (that) will enable the people of Wales to realise their true heritage of a full and rich nationhood". The choice of the Professor of Celtic Literature at Aberystwyth to write on this subject is a happy one, and a suffi- cient recommendation for the pamphlet. It is an indispensable guide to anyone who would make this approach to the life and the literature of Wales, and a stimulating aid to anyone who would "enrich our past" by preserving the con- tinuity of the cultural tradition. T.H.J. A FAITH FOR THE NEW GENERATION BY J.q.Qilkey The Macmillan Company (New York): Pp. i-xiv, 1-159. 7s. 6d. nett This book, like many others of the same kind, owes its origin to the conviction that the intel- lectual climate and the social environment of the Church have changed so much that drastic re- adjustment is called for in the Church's teaching and organization (p. 18). It is the work of an American minister and professor, and in the last