Welsh Journals

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In Search of Monmouthshire 1536-1972 Tony Hopkins Continued from Issue 70 During the nineteenth century the controversy seems to have gained momentum. The proliferation of publications-official and commercial- in which Monmouthshire figured must have been a factor in this. Trade Directories are an example, Pigot's 1835 edition placing the county firmly in England with a detectable sense of paradox: In size and population it ranks as the thirty-sixth county in England. Monmouthshire was formerly reckoned one of the Welsh counties; and from the names of its towns and villages, its mountainous rugged surface, as well as its situation beyond a large river [the Wye], which seems to form a natural boundary between England and Wales in this part, it certainly partakes most of the original character of the latter country, though it is comprehended within the civil division of the former.