Wales That is Gone
RECOLLECTIONS of the quiet charm of the author's earlier book Welsh Country Upbringing brought a sense of pleasurable anticipation on receiving his second volume of reminiscences, musings and sketches called Welsh Country Characters, and once again Ave suc- cumb gladly to the old magic. We return with the writer to the scenes of his happy boyhood in the Vale of Teifi to recall the peaceful atmosphere, the stable ways and the vanished characters of the old rural society of the mid- and later- nineteenth century in South Wales. He does not attempt a systematic or critical history, but in easy discursive style gives us his own distillation of the remembered scene, of the religious outlook, the social manners and the unchanging cycle of work as they are embodied in this farmer and that labourer.
His modest claim at the outset—" Unless somebody is found to describe the folk way of life of this age an interesting chapter in the life of our people will be left unrecorded—that is what I have tried to do"—wins the reader's assent, for that is what Mr. Parry-Jones has achieved with skill and sincerity despite the language difficulty. His zest for his characters is so real and intimate that it is a delight to linger with him in their company. It is like the contented slipping into the past under the spell of a well-loved folk-song, full of simple philosophy and homely wisdom. How right he is when he says : " They belong to an age that, is over for ever, to a way of life that is no more. With very little adjustment they would have fitted into any generation between Henry VII and Edward VII, but they would not fit into this age," and how astonishing it is to note afresh that the entire change has been telescoped into less than half a century. It was, indeed, a service to record them thus faithfully. As in every community, the characters here-sketched are not of equal stature and interest, but several of the chapters will bear re-reading many times. " The Man who read the Bible Through," " Blessed Names," "A Survivor of the Rhondda Fires," " Mouldy Bread " and others will remain to mirror the days that are gone. They are full of tenderness, shrewdness, sly humour, slightly sub-acid in places. Occasional outbursts of healthy indignation against the alarming misuse of the countryside are here, too, and may they sting the quick planner and blue-print addict. Perhaps a too strict adherence to direct translation from the Welsh original makes some of the characters less compelling than they should be. A paraphrase in the author's easy practised writing would perhaps have brought the poetry, the untanned imagination, the power of these old preachers more vividly to life. But we do breathe the climate of the preaching of that literal generation. "They looked upon Palestine as another Wales and its people as Welsh people. The centuries did not separate them nor the customs or conditions divide them. The lesson of whatever experience the preacher wished to convey went home so easily because the, con- gregation could so completely put themselves in the place of Jacob or Job."
It is pleasant to have some animal stories in the book, and the hare joins the magic circle of the uncatchables, but where is the epic of the Welsh sheep-dog ? There should be one somewhere. One is reluctant, too, to accept as fact that the only characters in the Vale of Teifi were men. But perhaps the author is saving the women for a third volume. Meanwhile it is refreshing to have a book devoted to country-folk and green pastures and running waters so free from exaggerated emphasis on sex, crime and horror. A word of praise is due to the publishers for the admirable production of the book, the format and illustrations and the faultless proof-reading.
THOMAS JONES.
Previous page
