Englishness Identified Manners and Character 1650-1850

In the seventeenth century the English were often depicted as a nation of barbarians, fanatics, and king-killers. Two hundred years later they were more likely to be seen as the triumphant possessors of a unique political stability, vigorous industrial revolution, and a world-wide empire. These may have been British achievements; but the virtues which brought about this transformation tended to be perceived as specifically English. Ideas of what constituted Englishness changed from a stock notion of waywardness and unpredictability to one of discipline and dedication. The evolution of the so-called national character - today once more the subject of scrutiny and debate - is traced through the impressions and analyses of foreign observers, and related to English ambitions and anxieties during a period of intense change.

Introduction: Englishness, 1: Energy - Industry - Locomotion - Physicality - Melancholy - Gravity - Order - Practicality, 2: Candour - Plainness - Openness - Separateness - Domesticity - Honesty - Humbug, 3: Decency - Barbarity - Fair Play - Propriety - Modesty, 4: Taciturnity - Silence - Conversation - Oratory - Clubbability, 5: Reserve - Xenophobia - Hospitality - Familiarity - Intimacy - Exclusiveness, 6: Eccentricity - Liberty - Informality - Originality - Character - Eccentrics, Conclusion: Manners and Character, Index