Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

from parents and staff-Greenhill had only four headmasters in 81 years -they trained their most successful products to leave the community, and often the country, of their birth. It is not Mr. Harrison's intention to explore such paradoxes but to pro- vide a very detailed account of the development of one school. He does fill in something of the legislative background which affected Greenhill through the decades but it is hardly integrated into the main story. The immense amount of detail he furnishes of the early years-the 1889 Act, local scheme under the Act, appointment of governors, purchase of land and so on-can be tedious. But the story comes alive when the author himself comes on to the scene, to stay for over forty years. Such length of service is indication enough of the dedication and affection he has for the school. He tells its story uncritically and without a trace of cynicism. It is a catalogue of the positive-at the annual eisteddfodau 'nearly always the sun shone, giving a sense of wellbeing to the assembled company'. Of course there must have been dull days-and losers-but to all products of a Welsh grammar school this history will bring back memories of all that was good about them, not least some inspiring teachers. GARETH E. JONES Swansea DEVOLUTION. By Vernon Bogdanor. Oxford University Press, 1979. Pp. 246. £ 5.50 and £ 2.95 (paperback). Devolution-the very word recalls the last two decades of Welsh history, beginning with the new nationalism of the 1960s and ending with the re- jection of the Wales Act in the referendum of March 1979 and the remark- able general election of May 1979. Vernon Bogdanor's book, delayed by familiar production difficulties, appeared just before the summary execution of its subject. Many of us, academic scribblers (Keynes's term) and writers and public speakers of all kinds, must share vicariously in this final submission to the people's 'No'. But good academic scribblers survive the vagaries of actuality. Some of Mr. Bogdanor's tenses remind us how inevitable an assembly in Scotland at least seemed over a year ago. But his approach is historical and the analysis hard and detailed. The book is an exercise in a neglected form, constitutional history, and it will remain relevant if not topical for years to come. For the theme of devolution is related to important assumptions about recent constitutional and political developments: -the decline of legitimacy: 'The state has long ceased to be loved; now it is ceasing even to command respect' (p. 5) -the nature of modern nationalism: 'Modem ethnic nationalism has arisen as a reaction against powerful forces in the modern world, the forces of technocracy and corporatism' (p. 4) -the profound but peculiar unitary nature of the British state: centralization tempered by kindness' (p. 8)