A NEW book has been published that documents the gentry families across the Teifi region.

The book is called The Faded Glory – The Tivyside Squires and their Mansions, and is written by Beulah author Gerwyn Morgan.

The book will provide a glimpse into the lifestyle of gentry families living in the area during the Victorian times.

Mr Morgan believes that their lifestyle may not have matched the scale and lavishness shown in Downton Abbey but they did live a pampered lifestyle.

The book will talk about how their substantial income was based in rents from farm estates which allowed the squires and their families to live in large country houses and elegant mansions with butlers, housekeepers, cooks, maids, servants, grooms, coachmen and liveries footmen.

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The Faded Glory – The Tivyside Squires and their Mansions features 250 pages and discusses 50 mansions, with 150 photographs to illustrate.

It covers the areas from Llwyngair near Newport to Alltyrodyn in Capel Dewi, just passed Llandysul. The book will discuss the social and sporting lives of the squires and their families and the tight-knight community they formed.

It will discuss the lavish house parties, society weddings, masked balls, hunt dances and dinners and the large, lavish meals and wines.

Readers will also learn about the less-glamourous side of gentry life, including the exploits and scandals of the squires.

Some of what is covered includes a squire who fathered six children with his housekeeper before dumping her when a prospective bride with a large dowry was found, the tale of a maid who fell in love with a squire’s son and committed suicide and a squire who evicted chapel members from a chapel on his land because he disagreed with the politics of the local minister.

There is also the stories of a squire who challenged a runner to race from Cardigan to Haverfordwest over the Preseli Hills, the squire who became a religious zealot and financed the building, upkeep and fee to each visiting preacher of a new Methodist chapel and the squire who warded off Rebecca rioters by giving his butler a flintlock pistol.

The Faded Glory – The Tivyside Squires and their Mansions by Gerwyn Morgan is on sale now in Awen Teifi Bookshop in Cardigan and Debbie’s Giftware in Newcastle Emlyn.