ABSTRACT
The extracts in this chapter all refer, often quite explicitly, to a common idea of what it means to be English or to an idea of what England is-even if, as in the letters by D.H.Lawrence, that idea is perceived as tarnished or in danger of collapsing. Each extract is the (sometimes idiosyncratic) view of the individual writer; yet taken together the extracts do suggest several common themes, patterns and ideas which come together to constitute key ideas about, and ideals of, Englishness.
