In great and colourful detail the Welsh writer Jane Williams (1806–1885) tells the history of Wales from the settlement of the Cymry in pre-Christian Britain until the Tudor period. The work, first published in 1869, remained a standard work until the beginning of the twentieth century. The most remarkable feature of the book's methodology is that its narrative is based on the use of an impressive range of source material, ranging from Pliny and Bede to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Jane Williams is a passionate chronicler of Welsh history and does not seek to be objective in her portrayals. The Earl of Shrewsbury for instance is 'inhuman', and ravages 'the fertile island'; and Williams perceives Daffyd Aberdaron as a zealous Dean of Bangor who 'earnestly' desires 'justice for Wales'.