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THESE ARE INVIGORATING TIMES IN Britain! Town and country are locked in emotional turmoil over the contentious Parliamentary decision to ban the age-old pursuit of fox hunting. Prince Charles has reignited strong emotions and debate over constitutional questions with his long-expected decision to wed Camilla Parker Bowles. The Labour Party is poised to win yet another term in government in the absence of a credible opposition.
I do hope you will be along for the journey
The more things change, the more they stay the same. One of the most pleasingly unique aspects of Britannia and her people is that they live so comfortably in their history. There is a continuity of identity that extends back more than 2,000 years and into the misty portals of prehistory when Avebury and the Ring of Brodgar first made their human appearance on the landscape.
Among the distinguishing characteristics of the British people is their innate capacity to transcend the exigencies of the day—to place their personal lives and personal experience in the context of their collective past—to sing with confidence while V-1 bombs are falling in the back garden, “There’ll Always Be an England!” Neither the latest wrinkle in the melodrama of royal history nor the town and country rift over how best to keep the fox population under control amounts to much in such a context.
In our last issue, I wrote in this column that the mission of British Heritage was “to illuminate our connection to what will always be the motherland of our way of life, our language and our own culture.” Across North America hundreds of organizations and institutions keep our British heritage alive. This issue begins a series, appropriately called “Hands Across the Sea,” profiling some of those cultural connectors. We begin with the St. Andrew’s societies, keeping the Scottish heritage alive and lively from Nova Scotia to Southern California.
Another cultural connector, especially for those with Welsh blood in their veins, is the Welsh Language and Heritage Centre on the Lleyn Peninsula in northwest Wales. There is nothing like learning a bit of a tongue that goes back 2,000 years to help us appreciate Wales’ past and our own.
Over the next few issues, BH will celebrate many ways in which our American cultural connection to historic Britain is shared and preserved. We will also visit the great colonial emigrations from Britain that have made all of us Albion’s seed. There’s a little fun ahead, too, as we dine at some famous old London restaurants, go to the theater and travel from the Great Glen to the English Channel. Ah, yes, these are stirring times at British Heritage as well. I do hope you’ll be along for the journey!
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