ABSTRACT
You really need to listen to the music to thoroughly appreciate this! It represents the view of the past as generally taught in elementary schools from about 1865 until about 1965: nationalistic, moralising, rousing. An example of this approach is H.E. Marshall’s Our Island Story (1905), widely used in schools in the first half of the last century, recently republished by readers of the Daily Telegraph and enthusiastically reviewed by Debo, Duchess of Devonshire, in the Spectator (Devonshire 2005: 45). The text accompanying the illustration of our hero on page 321 must be the original ‘cool Britannia’: ‘“There is time to finish the game and beat the Spaniards too,” said Drake.’ The text continues: ‘Day by day the wind grew fiercer . . . [the Spaniards] were shattered on unfriendly rocks . . . At last, ruined by shot and shell . . . about fifty maimed and broken wrecks reached Spain . . . Elizabeth ordered a medal to be made saying, “God blew with his breath, and they were scattered”.’ I have no problem with national pride but Our Island Story simply does not square with what is known. In the section on ‘Good Queen Bess’ it goes on to quote William Collins (1788-1789).
