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English People's Way of Life. The English Character

British Homes

The majority of the British population live in small houses built close together. A typical house of this kind is built with two floors. The front door, which faces the street, opens into a hall with two rooms, one on each side of the hall. One of them is the dining-room; the other may be'called the sitting-room or the living-room. The most modem name for this room is the lounger.

The rooms upstairs are bedrooms; they are often very small. Often the dining-room is the most comfortable room In the house, and the one that is used all the time. The other members of the family bring their hobbies and games to the table. But when the television set is turned on, no one can do anything in the dining-room.

Very many houses of this type were built in British cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today the land on which they stand has become very valuable and the owners either sell it or pull down the old houses and build large blocks of flats. In this way the owners make more money.

Many British people give their suburban house a name, such as the Cedars, the Poplars, The Rhubard Cottage, even though there are no trees or vegetables in their gardens. People of high social position have country houses with names, so a house with a name seems 'better' than a house with a number. Numbers make the postman's work much easier, but this is not important.

. In English homes, the fireplace has always been, until recent times, the natural centre of interest in a room. People may like to sit at a window on a summer day, but for many months of the year they prefer to sit round the fire and watch the dancing flames.

In the Middle Ages the fireplaces in the halls of large castles were very wide. Only wood was burnt, and large logs were carted in from the forests, and supported, as they burnt, on metal bars. Such wide fireplaces may still be seen in old inns, and in some of them there are even seats inside the fireplace.

Elizabethan fireplaces often had carved stone or woodwork over the fireplace, reaching to the ceiling. There were sometimes columns on each side of the fireplace. In the 18th century, space was often provided over the fireplace for a painting or mirror.

When coal fires became common, fireplaces became much smaller. Grates were used to hold the coal. Above the fireplace there was usually a shelf, on which there was often a clock, and perhaps framed photographs.

English People's Way of Life. The English Character

The national character of the English has been very differently described, but most commentators agree over one quality, which they describe as fatuous self-satisfaction, serene sense of superiority, or insular pride. English patriotism is based on a deep sense of security. Englishmen as individuals may have been insecure, threatened with the loss of a job, unsure of themselves, or unhappy in many ways; but as a nation they have been for centuries secure, serene in their national successes.

Many books have been written — even more, perhaps, by Frenchmen, Americans. Germans, and other foreigners than by Englishmen — on English traits, English ways of life, and the English character. Their authors are by no means always in agreement, but they tend to point out what seems to them puzzles, contrasts, in the way the English behave. A few of these contrasts may serve to sum up how the world looks at the English.

First, there is the contrast between the unity the English display m a crisis, their strong sense for public order, indeed for conformity, and their extraordinary toleration of individual eccentricities. Germans are usually astounded by what they regard as the Englishman's lack of respect for authority and discipline. Frenchmen are often puzzled by the vehemence of English political debates, by the Hyde Park public orator, and similar aspects of English life, which in their own country would seem signs of grave political disturbance. This sort of contrast has led to the common belief held by foreigners, and indeed by Englishmen themselves, that they are a most illogical people, always preferring practical compromises to theoretical exactness.

Second, there is the contrast between English democracy, the English sense of the dignity and importance of the individual, and the very great social and economic inequalities that have hitherto characterized English life. There has recently been some tendency to allow greater social equality. But Victorian and Edwardian England

— which foreigners still think of as the typical England — did display extremes of riches and poverty, and draw an almost caste line between ladies and gentlemen and those not ladies and gentlemen.

Third, there is the contrast between the reputation of the English as practical men

— the nation of shopkeepers — and as men of poetry — the countrymen of Shakespeare and Shelley. The apparent coldness of Englishmen and their reserve has been almost universally noted by foreigners: but foreigners also confess that they find. English reserve not unpleasant, and that once one gets to know an Englishman he turns out to be a very companionable fellow.