England and the English (History-Night Shift)

On England

Extract from a speech by Earl Baldwin, Prime Minister of England ‘1920 / 30


• Contradiction about the english  “as a nation they are less open to intelectual sense than the latin race”
* He says that there is no nation that has the same talent or ability of producing geniuses.

• Personal characteristic

They always grumble, but they never worry
Grumbling is more superficial, leaves less of a mark on the character
This absence of worry keeps their nervous system sound and sane
Englishman is made for time of crisis and emergency
He is serene in difficulties but he is persistent to death and ruthless in action

• For the author when he is overseas England comes to him through the ear, the eye and certain scents such as… e.g. from the text…

• He grieves that these things that made England are not the inheritance of the people of those days, he thinks they ought to be…

• One of the strongest features of his race is the love of home, that makes his race seek for new homes in the Dominions overseas  they take with them what they have learned at home: love of justice, love of truth and the broad humanity

• He hopes that just as in those days people talk about the great Romans perhaps in the future these traits of the english people survive and the men who are then on this earth may yet speak of the english race as honourable, upright and persevering men, lovers of home, of their brethen, of justice and of humanity.










A Pilgrim Observes the People

Extract from His Letters from England by Karel Capek, Czechoslovakian writer


• The most beautiful things in England are the trees, the herds, the people and the ships… including those rosy old gentlemen and old ladies  on the whole, the country has produced the finest childhood and the finest old age

• Every Englishman wears a mackintosh, a cap and a newspaper in his hand, and the Englishwoman carries a mackintosh or a tennis raquet

• To know what an English gentleman is you have to be acquainted with an English club-waiter, a booking clerk or with a policeman  a gentleman is a combination of silence, courtesy, dignity, sport, newspapers and honesty

• People always manage to help each other, but they never have anything to say to each other, except for the weather, a joyless and reticent people.

• In the place of taverns they invented bars, where one can stand, drink and hold one’s peace

• The more talkative people take to politics or to authorship

• If you get to know them closer they are very kind and gentle, they never speak much because they never speak about themselves

• They are: free-and-easy as young whelps,
Hard as flint
Incapable of adapting themselves
Conservatives, loyal and always uncommunicative

• You cannot speak to them without being invited to lunch or dinner

• You can trust them more than yourself

• You would be free and respected there more than anywhere else in the world.