Topic: May 2008
Britain’s History in a New National Museum
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His Majesty’s 10th Regiment of Foot, American Contingent
[caption id="HisMajestys10thRegimentofFootAmericanContingent_img1" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Soldiers of the 10th Foot relax on Lexington Green before the annual Patriots’ Day skirmish.[/caption]
Pink Tea in the Garden Room
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Britain’s Past and Present: Making the Vital Connection
THERE ARE MANY reasons for championing history. The better we know and understand the past, the better we know and understand ourselves and our own times. Over the last year, Great Britain has engaged more seriously than ever in questions of its national identity. The country has become one of the great melting pots of our times. Ethnic and cultural minorities from across the globe fill British cities. You can pick up a Polish-language London daily newspaper; for years the most popular first name given boys has been Mohammad; few service jobs in the hospitality industry these days are filled with native English speakers. While the United Kingdom has been more than hospitable to Commonwealth immigrants and its European Union neighbors, its cultural, religious and social values—what has been Britain’s identity and sense of itself—has come starkly into question. The difficulty is that while Britain has indeed been welcoming, it has not naturally integrated the newcomers into its society—let alone its institutions. Instead, each ethnic people has been encouraged, and socially funded, to keep its own organizations, celebrations, religions and communities. It has been easy to live in Britain, but it is not easy to become English, or Welsh or Scottish. Interestingly enough, it is rare to see non-Anglo-Celtic British folk at the kind of heritage sites that we Anglophiles love to cross the ocean to visit. You do not typically find England’s ethnic minorities visiting at National Trust or English Heritage properties, or strolling the path at Stourhead. While the kids come in school groups, blazer-clad and clipboard in hand, they don’t usually return in family groups or as adults. It must be that they do not feel these places have anything to do with them. Or do they not sense a welcome and participation there? We claim the land by knowing about it. It is the shared knowledge of the past and how it emerges into the present lives we lead together that creates a shared identity. The proposed new National Museum of British History is a step in the right direction. In the meantime, Britain would be well served to encourage all those who are there to claim the past for themselves, to visit the stately homes and gardens, castles and battlefields, industrial and folk life museums from Cornwall to the Highlands that are the physical memorials to British history. Connecting Britain’s rich, colorful past and dynamic present, of course, is what British Heritage delights to do. Undoubtedly, getting everyone a subscription to the magazine could only serve the cause of understanding!
A Day to Visit Conwy Castle Town
[caption id="ADaytoVisitConwyCastleTown_Feature" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Perched midway on the north coast of Wales, where the River Conwy enters the Irish Sea, 13th-century Conwy grew up within the walls of Conwy Castle—walls that to this day define the pretty town.[/caption]
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King Arthur Slept Here!
[caption id="KingArthurSleptHere_Feature" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Just seven miles from Viroconium, an earlier foundation at Much Wenlock Abbey may have guarded the heirloom treasures of King Arthur and the lineage of British kings.[/caption]
Soho After Dark
The National Trust
British Trains Deliver for Visitors
Dame Goodheart, Royal Jubilees and Rare Things in the Gallery
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Robin Hood: The Folk Hero
IN THE LATE 12TH CENTURY, England was divided into two castes. The native Saxons, or “English,” were bested a century earlier by William the Conqueror. Within a generation, lands and titles were stripped from the Saxon thanes and granted to Norman knights. The Saxons were getting pretty tired of being oppressed and paying taxes. Into this historical context rode a hero of the occupied English, who gave the common folk something to cheer about. Outlawed by the Normans, a Saxon yeoman, Robin of Locksley, takes refuge in the vast undergrowth of Sherwood Forest. He gathers around him a motley gang of peasants and vagabonds who have similarly run afoul of Norman law or found its bondage intolerable. Across the East Midlands Robin Hood and company take the Saxon country folk under their protection, relieve their destitution and avenge Norman injustice. Robin and his gang live in Sherwood Forest, largely by natural law. They do indeed finance their existence and their social program by relieving the Norman nobility and their lackeys of cash and chattels. Robin Hood himself, the natural leader of this band of goodhearted brigands, is a magnificent physical specimen, chivalrous in love and master of the sexy weapon of the era—the longbow. He exemplifies courage and daring, risking himself again and again for others. He administers justice on behalf of the Merrie Men with mercy and good will. How can you not love this guy? Several candidates for the “real” Robin Hood have been advanced over the years, but it doesn’t matter. History or legend, Robin Hood represents what our Anglo-American society aspires to in spirit, but hasn’t quite figured out how to properly articulate and integrate into our law and social consciousness: equity.
