Introduction

Religious belief was the fulcrum of individual and collective life in early modern society. The news was one phenomenon through which the collective and the individual were brought into contact with each other, and it follows that the influence of religion should be detectable in it. Scholars including Andrew Pettegree and Joad Raymond have attempted to define ‘news’, and by drawing on research from a variety of disciplines they have come up with different answers (Pettegree 2014; Raymond and Moxham 2016). We have found Raymond's definition of the newspaper to be a helpful guide: it is ‘defined by seriality, precise periodicity, physical continuity, consecutive numbering and a stable title’ (Raymond 2003: 107). The periodical press was chiefly, though not exclusively, an instrument of news. The news was polyvocal, coming to consumers in myriad forms, and to consider the periodical press as though it existed in a vacuum would misrepresent it. Not all periodicals fell into the genre of news. Between the lapse of the 1662 Licensing Act in 1679 and its reinstatement in 1685, for example, ninety-two periodical titles were published in London. Of these, Susannah Randall has estimated that seventy-six can be termed ‘unofficial newspapers’ (2008: 45). Publications outside the newspaper genre included scholarly works such as Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, book trade notices such as Catalogue of books printed/continued and the more literary Lucian, a Dialogue (S. Randall 2008: 49–50).

Religion is vast and unwieldy. Its tendrils are so numerous and so extensive that they can be difficult to see, much less to disentangle. It can encompass such varied aspects as doctrine, practice, confessional differences, lay and ecclesiastical divisions, controversies, regional variation and much more. It is not a topic that can easily be confined to its own discrete sphere. In the early modern period religion was almost always entangled, for example, with politics and social or economic differences. In early modern Britain there were few areas of life, both for the state and the individual person, in which religion was not relevant. The entanglement of religion with all areas of life is visible when examining religion and the periodical press. Religion pervaded early modern news media: its content, censors, audiences, writers, printers and publishers.

Introduction

For almost all of the period 1640–1800 there existed no press on Welsh soil, and comparatively little news media was printed in the Welsh language. This did not, however, mean that Wales was an information backwater. This chapter will show that the Welsh were adept at seeking out news sources and sharing news. There was a very keen appetite for manuscript and printed material. From the late seventeenth century this included news media printed in Welsh as well as English. English newspapers, pamphlets and periodicals were keenly received by gentry households and their contents disseminated, as were the bespoke manuscript newsletters and letters of news which were one of the main sources of domestic news for early modern Welsh and English elites. For less wealthy news consumers there were ballads and almanacs, and (particularly in border areas) the oral dissemination of news by those travelling, selling and working for the gentry. This chapter will explore Wales and its relationship with the news media in six sections. It begins with a summary of Welsh and English historiography, before examining the available primary sources, many of which would bear further study. Section three outlines depictions of Wales in the news, particularly at times of crisis, and posits some tentative arguments about the Welsh response to these often-crude stereotypes. Sections four and five take a brief chronological look at the developments in Welsh relationships with the news during two main periods: 1640–95 and 1695–1800.

Historians, Wales and the News

Scholarly studies of Wales and the news have been few and far between. This is particularly the case in relation to the sixty years between 1640 and 1700. Lloyd Bowen's articles on seventeenth-century Welsh news networks and the intersection between news and language are notable foundations on which to build. Sam Garland's PhD research using the north-east Welsh Mostyn newsletter collection demonstrated the interactions between scribal and printed forms of periodical news, and my own recent book explored the connections between north-east Welsh news culture and historical traditions of political and religious loyalism (Garland 2016; Ward Clavier 2020). Several scholars have considered Welsh news and print culture in relation to specific events or discrete periods. The early covert printing presses of Welsh Catholics have featured in research on the Catholic resistance after 1568.

Introduction

For almost all of the period 1640–1800 there existed no press on Welsh soil, and comparatively little news media was printed in the Welsh language. This did not, however, mean that Wales was an information backwater. This chapter will show that the Welsh were adept at seeking out news sources and sharing news. There was a very keen appetite for manuscript and printed material. From the late seventeenth century this included news media printed in Welsh as well as English. English newspapers, pamphlets and periodicals were keenly received by gentry households and their contents disseminated, as were the bespoke manuscript newsletters and letters of news which were one of the main sources of domestic news for early modern Welsh and English elites. For less wealthy news consumers there were ballads and almanacs, and (particularly in border areas) the oral dissemination of news by those travelling, selling and working for the gentry. This chapter will explore Wales and its relationship with the news media in six sections. It begins with a summary of Welsh and English historiography, before examining the available primary sources, many of which would bear further study. Section three outlines depictions of Wales in the news, particularly at times of crisis, and posits some tentative arguments about the Welsh response to these often-crude stereotypes. Sections four and five take a brief chronological look at the developments in Welsh relationships with the news during two main periods: 1640–95 and 1695–1800.

Historians, Wales and the News

Scholarly studies of Wales and the news have been few and far between. This is particularly the case in relation to the sixty years between 1640 and 1700. Lloyd Bowen's articles on seventeenth-century Welsh news networks and the intersection between news and language are notable foundations on which to build. Sam Garland's PhD research using the north-east Welsh Mostyn newsletter collection demonstrated the interactions between scribal and printed forms of periodical news, and my own recent book explored the connections between north-east Welsh news culture and historical traditions of political and religious loyalism (Garland 2016; Ward Clavier 2020). Several scholars have considered Welsh news and print culture in relation to specific events or discrete periods. The early covert printing presses of Welsh Catholics have featured in research on the Catholic resistance after 1568.

Introduction

Religious belief was the fulcrum of individual and collective life in early modern society. The news was one phenomenon through which the collective and the individual were brought into contact with each other, and it follows that the influence of religion should be detectable in it. Scholars including Andrew Pettegree and Joad Raymond have attempted to define ‘news’, and by drawing on research from a variety of disciplines they have come up with different answers (Pettegree 2014; Raymond and Moxham 2016). We have found Raymond's definition of the newspaper to be a helpful guide: it is ‘defined by seriality, precise periodicity, physical continuity, consecutive numbering and a stable title’ (Raymond 2003: 107). The periodical press was chiefly, though not exclusively, an instrument of news. The news was polyvocal, coming to consumers in myriad forms, and to consider the periodical press as though it existed in a vacuum would misrepresent it. Not all periodicals fell into the genre of news. Between the lapse of the 1662 Licensing Act in 1679 and its reinstatement in 1685, for example, ninety-two periodical titles were published in London. Of these, Susannah Randall has estimated that seventy-six can be termed ‘unofficial newspapers’ (2008: 45). Publications outside the newspaper genre included scholarly works such as Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, book trade notices such as Catalogue of books printed/ continued and the more literary Lucian, a Dialogue (S. Randall 2008: 49–50).

Religion is vast and unwieldy. Its tendrils are so numerous and so extensive that they can be difficult to see, much less to disentangle. It can encompass such varied aspects as doctrine, practice, confessional differences, lay and ecclesiastical divisions, controversies, regional variation and much more. It is not a topic that can easily be confined to its own discrete sphere. In the early modern period religion was almost always entangled, for example, with politics and social or economic differences. In early modern Britain there were few areas of life, both for the state and the individual person, in which religion was not relevant. The entanglement of religion with all areas of life is visible when examining religion and the periodical press. Religion pervaded early modern news media: its content, censors, audiences, writers, printers and publishers. Indeed, religious books have long been acknowledged as constituting the largest category in British publishing in the early modern period.

Introduction

This chapter draws on qualitative research using participatory methods to explore the experience of people with dementia who live alone. Drawing on data gathered in Sweden and the UK, the chapter highlights the distinct challenges of living alone with dementia and explores the different ways that people remain connected to neighbourhood places. We argue that the invisibility of such experiences to dementia policy and strategies (which typically assume the presence of a cohabiting carer or household member to provide support) needs to be addressed if dementia-friendly initiatives are to be truly inclusive.

Demographic projections show that the number of people living in single households will continue to increase steadily in many western and northern European countries and that older women are the fastest-growing section of the single householder population (Sundström et al, 2016; United Nations, 2017). The ageing population living alone in Europe also includes an increasing proportion of people with dementia (Prescop et al, 1999; Gaymu and Springer, 2010; Prince et al, 2015). In Canada, France, Germany, the UK and Sweden, between one third and one half of the population of people with dementia residing in a neighbourhood context live in single households (Ebly et al, 1999; Nourhashemi et al, 2005; Alzheimer's Society, 2013; Eichler et al, 2016; Odzakovic et al, 2019). Despite this increase in single householders with dementia, there is currently limited awareness of the particular challenges associated with living alone with dementia, even within emerging discourses and practices associated with dementia-friendly communities (Alzheimer's Society, 2013; Age UK, 2018; Odzakovic et al, 2018). As such, there is a danger that the creation of ‘dementia-friendly’ communities, and especially those based on communities of place, may rest upon a series of normative assumptions about dementia and about the relational context of people living with the condition.

Evidence from service-oriented research shows that people with dementia who live alone are more prone to (unplanned) hospitalisation (Ennis et al, 2014); are at greater risk of malnutrition (Nourhashemi et al, 2005); are likely to be admitted to long-term care at an earlier point in their journey with dementia (Yaffe et al, 2002); are often less well connected to formal services (Webber et al, 1994); and lack the advocacy of a co-resident carer (Eichler et al, 2016).

Introduction

Neighbourhoods have been integral to the rapid changes occurring within dementia care in recent years, although have not always been acknowledged as such. Dementia, like aged and mental health care before it has been absorbed into a project of deinstitutionalisation occurring within healthcare systems across much of the affluent west (Anttonen and Karsio, 2016). In the UK, deinstitutionalising dementia has involved large-scale reductions to hospital beds available to people with dementia and reduced duration of stay (Alzheimer's Society, 2009). In basic terms, it has meant the relocation of care and support from one type of material and social setting to another, and as such marks a changing geography of care. In many parts of Europe, this ‘re-placing’ of dementia care has not stalled at the shift to community-based support. The ongoing retrenchment of public services driven by a policy of fiscal consolidation (that is austerity) has led to widespread closures of traditional council-led day care services (Needham, 2014) alongside tightening of eligibility criteria for admission to care homes and for Continuing Health Care (RCN, 2012), resulting in significant reductions in collective forms of community-based provision. People with dementia are increasingly less likely to be clustered in designated care settings while segregated from the wider community. Instead, policy intentions have shifted to supporting people to age in place through a focus on Personalisation (DoH, 2019; Malbon et al, 2019; Manthorpe and Samsi, 2016). However, as with aged care before it, concerns have been raised over the extent of an existing neighbourhood infrastructure to adequately respond to such changes in dementia care (for example, Miranda-Castillo et al, 2010). The potential danger is that people living with the condition may become, in Rowles’ (1978) terms, ‘prisoners of space’; facing the prospect of social isolation and domestic confinement as their lifeworld constricts (Alzheimer's Society, 2013; Moyle at el, 2011).

The advent of the ‘dementia-friendly community’ (DFC), following in the wake of the age-friendly cities movement (WHO, 2007), might be read as a vehicle for policy to address these concerns. Interestingly in the UK, the approach differs between countries. In Scotland, dementia is a devolved matter, with the Holyrood government setting policy which acknowledges the importance of DFCs through the National Dementia Strategy (Scottish Government, 2017).

Introduction

This chapter explores what neighbourhoods mean for people living with dementia. While the built environment, and the economic and political apparatus they comprise of such as shops, services and localised campaigning, are certainly important, our attention focuses on how people living with dementia understand neighbourhoods as sites of relationally constituted ordinary or everyday social connection, engagement and interaction. The chapter outlines the nature of associations individuals have with the wider social sphere of their immediate locale and considers how these ostensibly geographical proximate (or local) social connections might support people to live as well as they might with dementia. In doing so, it considers why it matters to understand the socio-spatial dimensions of neighbourhoods as relational and interconnected phenomena and considers the importance of thinking about neighbourhoods as more than environments in need of intervention or modification in order to support people living with dementia.

How are neighbourhoods understood in the dementia literature?

In a review published in 2012, Keady and colleagues noted that a surprisingly small amount of literature has focused specifically on the importance of neighbourhoods for people living with dementia. The review identified three domains of activity: outdoor spaces, the built environment, and everyday technologies. The first examines how the outdoor environment can be better designed and/or modified to support people living with dementia. This includes work on the design of streetscapes and road layouts to better support mobility, as well as ongoing work to enable easier access to a range of different environments such as green and recreational spaces. A second attends to navigation and mobility of environments, such as shopping centres, hospitals, museums and grocery stores. The third investigates the use of technologies, including virtual realities, to support access to, or better develop, environments beyond the home (Keady et al, 2012). Since then, a considerable body of work has continued to investigate these areas (Sturge et al, 2021) and continues to provide evidence of the need to better understand why and how people living with dementia interact with their immediate environments outside of the home.

Abortion. The phrase “uterine evacuation” can create tension and line people up on opposite sides of the abortion issue, with no recognition of its safety, commonplace occurrence and health or life-saving capabilities. Due to the dichotomized and politicized nature of abortion, in some places it is difficult to teach health care providers how to empty a uterus, even in a life-threatening situation.Early pregnancy loss (EPL) management can provide an entry point for this education, as well as a way to destigmatize the uterine aspiration procedure and medical treatment because, although management is the same as for “elective abortion” the indication is different; with an abortion, a pregnancy is terminated that would otherwise likely continue, while with EPL, the pregnancy has ceased to be viable. This difference is subtle, yet concrete and profound for many.

This chapter describes many potential collaborations within and beyond the university environment to expand reproductive healthcare, rights, and justice. Academic partnerships should be created with colleagues from diverse medical specialties and health care disciplines to expand clinical care, education, research, and advocacy efforts. Collaborations with organizations beyond the university can ideally be integrated into academic institutions’ missions to serve the surrounding community and to advocate for people and policy change. These can also include expansion of and improvements in reproductive healthcare, education, research to identify barriers and approaches to overcome them, and advocacy with existing community partners.

In the early modern period, the Welsh were infamous for their lengthy pedigrees and their obsession with their lineage. This genealogical tendency was a source of (sometimes affectionate, sometimes more hostile) mockery by their English neighbours, even at the sixteenth-century peak of the English gentry’s own engagement with genealogy and lineage. Although pedigrees and, later on, heraldry were indeed central to Welsh historical representation, they were only part of a wider picture of overlapping historical strategies and media. Welsh-language praise poetry and oral performance; music; portraiture, sculpture and architecture; manuscript collections; and narrative histories were all ways that the Welsh gentry conceptualised and represented themselves and their past. Humphrey Lhuyd of Denbigh (1527–68), for example, was a Welsh humanist who wrote fervently in favour of the British History, and also compiled one of the three surviving heraldic manuals, Dosbarth Arfau (A System of Arms). Bardic poems from the mid-fifteenth to the early seventeenth century are embellished with coats of arms, and references to heraldry and genealogy abound in poetry. Despite the narrative of change that threads through these different forms, there is also significant overlap and continuity. Although the bardic order had declined significantly by the early seventeenth century when portraiture (for example) was becoming very popular, there were still bards of a lesser status composing praise poetry in gentry houses until at least the late seventeenth century. While the popularity of heraldry may have waned after the Civil Wars it remained a prized strategy to demonstrate power and authority alongside new trends in material culture. It is also the case that, long after the baton had passed on to other forms of historical writing or representation, older forms were retained and used as a way to demonstrate the ancientness and prestige of Wales and her gentry. Before considering the underlying concepts of Welsh historical culture in Chapter 2 it is important to examine how historical materials were produced in Wales, what forms they took, and the extent to which they changed over time. For ease of analysis these forms will be discussed in a roughly chronological order of development, though until the end of the seventeenth century they overlapped to some degree.

The king’s ‘loyall Welsh’ formed a significant part of his armed forces. Loyalty was a powerful brand and concept in the early modern period, and it was one that was significantly prized in Wales. The North-East Welsh gentry prioritised loyalty to the Stuart monarchs, their country, and their peers above all other political values. Loyalty was a political and religious idea, demonstrated through words, behaviour and ritual, and objects. Loyalty was referenced in letters, poems, proclamations, and narratives from 1640 to 1688. It was embodied and commemorated in objects. It was frequently used as a rhetorical tool, but also featured in more personal reflections. Loyalty can refer to faithful adherence to a promise or oath, or to a ‘sovereign or lawful government’. North-East Welsh gentlemen saw their adherence to the Stuarts in this light, although this was partly determined by the narratives of history and kinship as well as the inherent goodness of a political state and system. As one significant expression of loyalty at a time of great crisis, royalism was woven into the fabric and society of North-East Wales.

Royalism will be defined herein as both a personal and corporate allegiance to the Stuart monarchs in the period 1642 to 1660, and an identity during that period and beyond. In North-East Wales there was a strong prevalence of the instinctive and personal form of allegiance identified by Barbara Donegan. This allegiance was shaped by Welsh historical culture, particularly in its ‘familial’ and personal nature – if connection through history and family was of prime importance elsewhere in North-East Welsh society, it was certainly crucial in Civil War allegiance. ‘Loyalism’ here is used in two senses. First, in a general sense of loyalty across the period 1660 to 1688 to the monarchy, the Church of England, and to the ordered society. Second, as a political identity and a legacy of royalism which affected political and religious actions and responses from the Restoration onwards. In the more general sense of political ‘loyalism’, the functioning of the North-East Welsh conservative political system depended on the existence of local, regional, and national patriarchs. If the monarch was at risk, so was the power and authority of those beneath him.