Tuesday, 18 January 2011

My little part of the world part IV

Technically I’m half Irish a fact I’m very proud of, however I was born and bred in Yorkshire England, which is so special it almost subsumes all other considerations. So naturally as a Tyke I also feel fiercely English.

Trying to give you an insight into the English is not easy. We are a mongrel race carrying the genes of the Vikings, The Normans, the Anglo-Saxons and everyone else who settled here, or stopped to have a quick knee trembler behind the Odeon. In part this is due to our very high level of religious and political tolerance and whether it be the Huguenots or Karl Marx we’ve found a home for all kinds of people - although one suspects we migh have overdone that.

Why is the English national identity so elusive? Why, unlike the Scots, Welsh, Irish and most of Europe, do the English find it so difficult to say who we are? What is this elusive Englishness? Well, we are inveterate tea drinkers, raised to display a stiff upper lip, we tend not to be emotional, we enjoy subtlety, reticent to wear our hearts on our sleeve and are great aficionados of irony. Historically we have demonstrated great ingenuity, the Industrial Revolution began here, and we also once held sway over the biggest Empire the world has ever seen. Mainly because in the past we were a nation of seafarers, the possessors of the world’s biggest navy as well as buccaneers and adventurers.

Maybe part the elusiveness comes from the fact we have no national anthem something that always helps in defining a nation. Nonetheless, we do have two unofficial ones. Here’s the first, it gives a hint at what Englishness is and what it means:





Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear: o clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

From the days when the English first learnt to fashion a bow from yew we have never shirked a fight, although we have a preference for doing it in somebody’s else’s backyard.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Shakespeare Henry V

Aligned to this we have a strong sense of what is right, which is why we are in Afghanistan although we can ill afford it - in an era where national convenience more commonly holds greater sway. There you have much of the English character, elusive yes but still on show. Proud, ancient and indomitable. Both the Kaiser and Hitler in turn it is said went into black fits of depression when they heard that we would stand by Belgium and Poland respectively.

Despite that great English poet Rudyard Kipling calling them flannelled fools the English still love their bizarre game of cricket. Strange when you think they invented the modern games of football and rugby. It is in sport that once the English enshrined their ideals of fairness, courage and loyalty. Often sport became inextricably intertwined with the same virtues demanded by the battlefield. Nowhere was the embodiment of this more sharply seen than in the bastions of the class system, the English public School:

Vitai Lampada

There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night --
Ten to make and the match to win --
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote --
'Play up! play up! and play the game!'

The sand of the desert is sodden red, --
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; --
The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:
'Play up! play up! and play the game!'

Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938)

Because of this it is said an Englishman never knows when he’s beaten. Here’s another glimpse of that indomitable spirit allied to a public school education:





Despite this apparent ’warlike’ nature the English would prefer to stay at home and potter in the garden or sit with a glass of lemonade and read the newspapers.

We are a people of many parts. Thomas Beecham once said: The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes. Certainly when it comes to the greatest popular musical movement of the last hundred years we have played our full part. When rock died in the States it was resurrected here by The Beatles and the Stones; whether it be Queen, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Pink Floyd, The Who or the driving force behind Fleetwood Mac we have absorbed the great American Rock tradition and instead of simply imitating it have turned it into something uniquely English.

Englishwomen are of course gorgeous, but before you buy a plane ticket you need to know that attractive women aren’t distributed evenly geographically. The best are found north of a line drawn under Leeds and Manchester, alternatively get as far away from London as you can.





Whether it be generosity or the enduring legacy of our adventurism we have donated parliamentary democracy, the King James Bible, Shakespeare and our language to large parts of the globe.

Charles Darwin established the greatest scientific theory of all time, even though half of America still dispute it. But we shouldn’t forget Dalton, Dirac, Dawkins and Dickens. That’s not forgetting the world’s greatest modern philosopher Bertrand Russell. I could go on ad infinitum, but I’ll type for three minutes instead: Jane Austen, King Arthur, Beatrix Potter, Byron, Brunel, Boyle, Constable, Chaucer, Kipling, Elgar, Faraday, C.S. Lewis, Gilbert &Sullivan, Pepys, Masefield, Wordsworth and Tennyson, Nelson, Turner,, Lewis Carroll, the Brontes, W H Auden, Wellington and Earl Grey tea……. just as well I’m a slow typist.

Yes we have our shortcomings. We have wallowed too long in the well-intentioned but pernicious mire of political correctness . It is sad that children get sent home from school for wearing the cross of St George (now allegedly a symbol of racism) can you imagine something like that happening in the USA? Temporarily we are a country that has lost it’s purpose, youth goes on binge dinking sprees and people of all ages (aided by tabloid newspapers) instead of admiring talent resent it. The Class system still lingers here and some English people can be overly aloof. Despite this mess we still punch above our weight.

So………….

Look, stranger, on this island now
The leaping light for your delight discovers,
Stand stable here
And silent be,
That through the channels of the ear
May wander like a river
The swaying sound of the sea.

From On This Island, W H Auden
1907-1973

And before I forget. Our other National Anthem:





Finally we mustn’t forget we English are also fiercely British.





Who said jingoism is dead? Next time we visit God’ s country Yorkshire!

10 comments:

Jenny said...

Always interesting. I'd hate to see your output if you were a fast typist, you already put most of the rest of us to shame. =)

New Chatter said...

Absolutely tremendous post to come back to Saffy. Tha's done us reet proud. Thank you.

Soulstar said...

I enjoyed this very much, Saffron, thank you! :)

Nicky said...

I think Jenny and Dan said it best, Saffy. You have really raised the bar, and Camille too, over the past few days. I am giving serious thought to converting, and becoming English. Do you have an application form ?

Nicky said...

I do have to take exception, though saffy. The English treated Captain Jack Sparrow, of pirates of the Caribbean rather disgracefully. Just a thought.

QUINNIE said...

Yorkshire was god's second country after the red rose county of Lancashire !!!

jaye said...

All of those wonderful contributions but it is the English muffin I like the best.

English Rose said...

You ain't seen nuthin' til you've been down on an English muffin.

Nicky said...

I wish I had said that.

Nicky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.