£ 312 6s. 5d. at the Belle Vue Hotel, liberally oiling the throats of prospective voters. Months later this and other bills he had run up in the town were still unpaid. When challenged, Inglis Jones expressed surprise that 'People in Aberystwith are getting clamorous for their money'.87 Ironically, however, the dependents of the gentry could find themselves as vulnerable to distraint and the workhouse as the tenant farmers; with women and children being particularly at risk. Ultimately it was the gentry who had most to lose. The clamorous voices represented desperate men whose lives were breaking under the burden of debt. The mid-nineteenth century, before the railway brought new hope to this area of Wales, seems to have been a particularly depressed time. The personal tragedies caused by debt were numerous and the consequences long-lasting; bitter resentments were sown which played their part in the harvest of anti-gentry agitation that was yet to come. Jill Barber University of Wales, Aberystwyth. 1 National Library of Wales, Glanpaith MS 313. Deputy coroner for Cardiganshire, clerk to the county roads board, clerk to the magistrates of the hundred of liar, clerk to the Aberystwyth harbour commissioners, collector of taxes, and secretary to the Aberystwyth infirmary. He served on other committees relating to the life of the town, among them the Aberystwyth improvements committee, and the committee to promote the establishment of the Deaf and Dumb Institution, whose meetings were held at the Assembly Rooms. The Leverhulme Trust are funding a research project based on the Llidiardau collection of manuscripts, and to them I extend my grateful thanks. For her valuable comments and criticisms in the preparation of this article I am indebted to Derryan Paul of the Department of Information and Library Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth. ) E. J. Sherrington, "The Plea Rolls of the Courts of Great Sessions 1541-1575', National Library of Wales Journal, 13 (1963-4), 368. 5 National Library of Wales, Llidiardau MS 9/5/5. 6. See R. J. Colyer, 'Roderick Eardley Richardes and Plas Penglais, Aberystwyth', Ceredigion, 10 (1984), 97-103. Llidiardau 8/6/89. R. J. Colyer, 'Nanteos: A Landed Estate in Decline, 1800-1930', Ceredigion, 9 (1980), 58-77; J. M. Howells, 'The Crosswood Estate, 1547-1947', Ceredigion, 3 (1956), 70-88. R. J. Colyer, 'The Pryse Family of Gogerddan and the Decline of a Great Estate, 1800-1960', Welsh History Review, 9 (1979), 407-31. R. J. Colyer, 'The Gentry and the County in Nineteenth-Century Cardiganshsire', Welsh History Review, 10 (1981), 519-21. T. N. Humphreys, 'Bryngwyn: A Study of the Impact of Family Settlements, Extravagance and Debt on a Welsh Estate', Montgomeryshire Collections, 75 (1987), 90. 11 D. W. Howell, Patriarchs and Parasites, (Cardiff, 1986), 178-9. 12 Ibid. 183; Llidiardau 8/1/109.