British History And Life: Unifying Factors. The divisions in British life-divisions of nationality, region, dialect, and class —are worth dwelling on because they are important to British people. However, when the British people are threatened with an external danger, as they were in 1940, they show an extraordinary sense of unity, which is equally a result of their history. Britain has not experienced a civil war or revolution for centuries, and the blessing of civil peace covers the country like an eiderdown. Political divisions do not run so deep as some politicians would like to pretend.
Most British people, however, regard the monarchy as a useful institution that carries out satisfactorily its traditional function of symbolizing the unity of the nation.Place of London in British Life. If the British people are deeply united, in spite of the many divisions in British life, there are other factors that play a part. London is one. London is the capital not only of England but of the whole of Britain and of the Commonwealth. It is not only one of the greatest conurbations of the world; it is everything that a great city can be.
The National Portrait Gallery, adjoining this (on Charing Cross Road) shows you the great and the charming of British history and life for the past few centuries. Would you like to see the Bronte Sisters, Robert Browning, his face fringed with prim whiskers, Nell Gwynn, looking very lovely and provocative, Lady Hamilton, Henry James, as a naturalized British subject, Inigo Jones, Mrs. Sarah Siddons, Sir Christopher Wren? They are all here, and hundreds more. |
