A radically unorthodox portrait of the lives of the Welsh is offered to readers in this social history of Wales from 1789–1870. A large range of social subjects—from rich landlords in the south to poor peasants in the north—are discussed along with engrossing analyses of such unusual institutions as the insane asylum and the rural festival and portraits of such unspeakable persons as bastard children and wizards. By interpreting the life experiences and emotions of individual people within Welsh society, this inquiry opens up the fascinating and heretofore hidden world of Wales during the rise of industrial Europe.