But there is one characteristic that at least distinguishes the English from equally admirable races. We pride ourselves on not boasting about being English. When G.K. Chesterton wrote of “the people of England that never have spoken yet”, he did not mean to suggest that we had nothing to say for ourselves - merely that while other nationalities “talked of freedom, while England talked of ale”. We chose that subject because, being free, we did not need to assert the importance of liberty and because we would have been embarrassed to proclaim our love of what we knew to be our birthright.
On Englishness
March 26th, 2008 · 5 Comments
Tags: The English
5 responses so far ↓
1 Doug // Mar 26, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Brilliant - the whole piece is a boast about not boasting.
Now that’s English if you like.
‘denied to other races’, ‘flamboyant ways’, ‘less secure nationalities’ who is he trying to kid?
2 Martin // Mar 26, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Chesterton never worked in a call centre.
3 Recusant // Mar 26, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Oh if only Chesterton were around to blog today. Alas it wasn’t to be.
4 Will Rhodes // Mar 26, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Yet that birthright is being eroded so you have the upsurge of English patriotism.
5 Elaib // Mar 27, 2008 at 10:03 am
Hypocrisy being the other magnificent English quality
Leave a Comment