Winchester is the centre of English civilisation

Sez Lucio Vicente López in Recuerdos de viaje (1881). This is apparently in part due to the Normans having invaded without women, thus enabling the maintenance of The Saxon Character. I think he’s wrong: Winchester is suspiciously continental, while Romsey had Ethelflaeda, who sang psalms while skinny-dipping in the Test.

Related posts

• suddenly, i’m not half the post-nationalist i used to be
• the world in a sentence, part iii
• Continental drinking
• The yoísmo and imperialistic English, featuring Amando de Miguel and introducing the Yo Index ™
• Clowning trombonists

Comments

Feeds: RSS2 · Atom

Trackback link.

Tell me if the spam dragon gives you a hard time. Log in if you want to be really foul.