This is an important contribution to a growing body of research on eighteenth-century Wales which has no English counterpart. Philip Jenkins led the way more than a decade ago with his study of the Glamorgan gentry; David Howell followed with his work on south-west Wales; and now Dr Humphreys had added to the list with this wide-ranging study of Montgomeryshire based on his doctoral thesis.

... Yet for all the statistics, there is a sensible balance between hard data and individual vignettes which bring to life some of the people of eighteenth-century Montgomeryshire. Thus we learn of failed marriages (pp. 36-7), domestic violence (pp. 230-1) and emiration (p. 261). ... This is an excellent county study and a convincing read[.]