Who were the English, where are they now?

Lower Manhattan in1660.  The large

structure toward the tip of the

island is Fort Amsterdam.

(North is to the right).

Having watched the Remembrance Services for 9/11 in New York and here in Grosvenor Square for those British people who lost their lives that terrible day – sharing the British service with my mother – it is yet another (last) landmark in our life together: it brings life home ... the memories that will live on.

They were poignant services as I am sure you will all agree; we then watched ‘Songs of Praise’ which covered the benefits of mixing the faiths, learning from the cultural differences through friends across the races, lots of songs with moving words – and thoughts to think about during these changing times.

The two memorials are very different – one built over the Twin Towers site itself, which has yet to be finished, and the other a garden in Grosvenor Square opposite the American Embassy ... which I look forward to visiting and being able to assimilate all the words and symbolism.

Back to who were the English ... and today who are the English?

Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731), the English writer, journalist and pamphleteer is notable as being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, and is among the founders of the English novel as shown with the success of Robinson Crusoe.

Defoe wrote this poem to describe the English:

The Romans first with Julius Caesar came

Including all the Nations of that name

Gauls, Greeks and Lowland – and by computation

Auxiliaries or Slaves of Every Nation –

With Hengist – Saxons, Danes with Sueno came

In search of Plunder, not in search of Fame

Scot, Pict and Irish from the Hibernian Shore

And conquering William brought the Normans o’er

... From this Amphibious ill-born mob began

That vain ill-natured thing - an English man –

The customs, Surnames, languages and Manners

Of all the nations are their own Explainers

Whose relicks are so lasting and so strong

They have left a Shibboleth upon our tongue

By which, with easy search you may distinguish

Your Roman – Saxon – Danish – Norman English.

Fate jumbled them together – God knows how!

What’er they were – they’re true born English now.

Spread of  Celts in 3^rd Century BC

(Gaulish Language)

Defoe explains ... “I only infer that an Englishman, of all men, ought not to despise foreigners as such, and I think the inference is just, since what they are today, we were yesterday, and tomorrow they will be like us.  ...  and for the King(King William of the Netherlands) being a foreigner himself, I confess myself moved by it to remind our nation of their own original ... we are really all foreigners ourselves.”

So who are we now ... looking at the participants of the various services ... the Bagpipers with their kilts, together with the Pipes and Drums, in New York playing out the Flag, to the families and friends of the lost, the Colliery Brass Band, the wonderful peoples who inhabit our nations of all colours, particularly shown in today’s Songs of Praise where young people were working together to promote peace and tolerance.

Who are we now – not just the English?  We, who have explored this world ... settling here, there and everywhere ... allowing each of us to share our desire for freedom to live, thrive and build new relationships with others – throwing open our free thinking minds to explore and understand those cultural and traditional differences in the desire to live in a caring and blessed world.

Depiction of the Battle of Hastings

(1066) on the Bayeux Tapestry

Seth Godin in his post of today – lets us know that more than 42 languages are spoken at the Queens Public Library in New York ... and finishes by saying “But now more than ever, I believe we have an obligation to stand up, stand out and to do work that matters. Wherever you are, there's an opportunity to be different, with respect.”

We all have recent forbears from other parts of the UK, while some are also descended from more recent immigrants from other European countries and from around the world – these mixes, cultures and desires have been ‘exported’ – the world is one now (almost) ...

.... today – embrace and encourage all peoples and their differences ... let the 21^st century have hope.

These be a "mixed bag" of English Peoples ... can you recognise them all? 

First Row:  Alfred the Great, Oliver Cromwell, William Shakespeare, Michael Palin, Georgiana Cavendish, Walter Raleigh, Sting; 

Second Row:  Elizabeth I of England, Bobby Moore, Margaret Thatcher, David Beckham, Harold Godwinson, Kate Winslet, Charles Dickens;

Third Row: Pope Adrian IV, Daniel Craig, Isaac Newton, George Harrison, Jane Austin, Damon Albarn, George Stephenson.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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