Readings Notes.
Introduction:
• The Sceptered Isle
• England is not an island, it is the southern and eastern portion of a group of
islands (an archipelago) in the North Sea known as the British Isles.
• The archipelago is home to four people’s, each has their own national histories
and customs: the English, the Irish, the Scots, and the Welsh. Although the English share
their island, they have always defended themselves as an “island people.” This fact is
crucial to understanding them.
• The English have thought the English Channel has shielded them from some
continental ways and ideas
• This England
• Southeastern England and the Home counties are flat. The most fertile part of
England because of its rich, deep soil, its milder weather, and longer growing season,
and this implies arable farming of grains like wheat and barley.
• The outlying regions of England compromise is fertile as well, though Cornwall is
quite rugged, and portions of Devon and Dorset are famous for their forests, heaths,
and moors (large expanses of wild).
• The Welsh Marches, Midlands, and the North are geographically,
topographically, and temperamentally a bit like the Celtic islands. That is their
remoteness from London’s influence and their rugged terrain meant that they were,
during our period, less populous, wealthy, and less well integrated with the center.
