ABSTRACT
In one favourite conceit … [England] was in essence a family, squabbling over inessentials, but pulling together when there was trouble…. Practical and down-to-earth, the English were nevertheless romantically attached to tradition, to the “unchanging beauty” of the English countryside, to the “cottages small” “beside a field of grain”. Crack shots when it came to confronting the enemy … they were for the rest hopelessly old-fashioned and at odds with the modern world. 1
