English Civilization

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English-speaking Civilization

I. History outlook of British Civilization

1. Pre-historical Age

The prehistorical era is the one that the population of Europe witness the achievement of

writing and the development of the rural civilization in the IV and III millennium, before

Christ, and the emerging and development of the towns in the second and first millennium,

before Christ. Then, the newly self-imposed Celtic leaders develop their social

communities in the middle of Europe. The old bronze culture begins to develop from

ortugal to !olland, and on both sides of the Channel, "esse# and $retagne, become the

trade centre with copper, zinc, gold and amber. Ireland spreads its artistic handicrafts on

the continent. This is the very moment of the megalithic moment of the %tonehenge, when

the population could afford it.

Towards the &'(( $.C. the wealthiness was declining, because of the scarcity of these metals.

The discovery of tin led to the development of another type of culture. The new habit of the

funeral urn that appeared on the $ritish Islands spread on the continent, mythology started its

development: the fire, the wagon, the sun are added to the old rituals of fertility. In the VIII

century, when people used to settle on hill tops, iron began to determine the use of bronze that

led to an important change of the social relationship and habits. The rich owners of that period

appreciate lu#ury ob)ects coming from the land of *reece and then from the Etruscan area.

%tarting from +(( before Christ, there are two main stages of iron history corresponding to the

archaeological sites considered as characteristic !allstatt in ustria and in a Teve in

%witzerland where the Celts spread it the first migration wave. %ome of the first main groups

of the migratory Celts settled in ondon as the core of the strong settlements were in the

anti/ue $ritannia, as the 0omans used to call it. They develop the fortified cities as the one of

1aiden Castle and begin to wor2 the natural resources as the woods, land, salt mines and

different metals that they turned into arms, agricultural tools and handicrafts.

The clear picture of an Early Iron ge settlement on the gravels of the ondon region

comes from much farther west, on the site of ondon irport at !eathrow. rchaeologists

found on Caesar’s Camp a hamlet of a /uadrangular enclosure, defended by a ditch and a ban2. Its northern part had been a cluster of eleven circular wooden huts with thatched



roofs. It is clear that it was a community consisting of several families. rectangular

temple was also found, consisting of a shrine surrounded by a colonnade of posts, very

much li2e a translation into wood and thatch of the stone 3 build *ree2 temples of the

1editerranean. It is suspected that scattered through the neighbouring countryside were

similar small farming communities lin2ed by 2ingship religion and trade, but with little

sense of political unity beyond a tendency to co-operate briefly in self-defence in the face

of a common danger.

The European e#pansion starts with trading relationship the 0oman producers e#ported

wine, oil and ceramics. In '+, before Christ, Caesar, the 0oman emperor fights against

Vercingetori# and con/uers the *aelic territory that belonged to a Celtic population. 4rom

that moment most of Europe fell under the control of the 0oman Empire.

2. he !o"an British Isles

substantial contemporary wor2 of this time is 5The 0uin of $ritain6 - a tract written

in &'(7s by a $ritish mon2 named Gildas. !is purpose was to denounce the evils of his

days in the most violent possible language. The Venerable $ede, a mon2 in the

8orthumbrian monastery of 9arrow completed his *reat Ecclesiastical !istory of the

English eople in :;&. There are also the nglo %a#on Chronicles supplying information

about the southern English 2ingdoms. The written sources, the archaeological findings

ma2e evidence of the fact that the history of the nglo %a#on settlements began under the

0oman Empire.

Claudius, the 0oman emperor is the one that lands on the $ritannia territory in 7;,

before Christ and con/uers Camulodunum <Colchester=, mar2ing the 0oman history of the

isles. The territory is then defended according to the needs, by four, then by three legions

situated at Carleton <%sca %ilurum=, 9or2 <Eboracum= and Chester <Chestria=.

The forces assembled to sail to $ritain comprised four legions and about the same number

of au#iliary troops, around 7(,((( men in all The 0oman disciplined military machine had

to be faced by the $ritish forces that retained their old character. The invasion met with

fierce resistance from some of the $ritish tribes, but others surrendered easily or )oined the

0omans.

It might have saved 0ome much trouble and e#pense if it had limited its con/uest to

the area it already controlled. ondon was founded as a supply port> it is possible that from

the beginning it was intended to become the administrative centre of $ritain as well, but its



position at the hub of the radiating system of the main roads was being built, very soon

made it also the business centre of the province.

"hen the 0omans came to $ritain, the ondon Clay surface was covered by oa2 forest

with dense undergrowth of hazel, hawthorn and brambles. In the wet alluvial soil of

Thames, would have been thic2ets of alder and willow. The river had served as a great

waterway into $ritain throughout prehistory and setters were attracted to the more open

country on its ban2s, especially where the river could be crossed by fords, where they

could scatter its rural population in units no larger than a small village, gaining living by

mi#ed farming and fishing. %imilar settlements became later the city of ondon, which was

called ondinium by the 0oman emperors.

The 0oman city of ondinium did not lac2 monuments and statues, but only a few

fragments have survived. ?ne of the most important archaeologists that e#cavated and

studied the remains of the city was Sir Christopher Wren> he traced bac2 some buildings

and their use, streets and the ondon 0oman wall. The main archaeological finds can be

seen in *uildhall and ondon 1useum.

The wor2 of organizing $ritain as a regular 0oman province progressed. Its

governorship en)oyed high status of an e#-consul and carried with it the command of an

e#ceptionally large group of legions. In its first century and a half as a province, men of

particular distinction were regularly chosen. It was not only a military challenge where

reputation could be won, but $ritain also regarded as a land of natural abundance. $y @

7: the e#ploitation of $ritain5s mineral resources had began, especially silver.

The '(5s were a decade of urban development. ?nly the agricultural hinterland

remained largely unchanged and the progress towards the universal adoption of the money

economy was slow. !owever, by @.. A(, with the governor %uetonius aullinus, the

province loo2ed set to progress steadily. $ut the $ritish can bear to be ruled by others, but

not to be their slaves as Tacitus commented about the $ritish character. "hen rasutagus,

in @ A&, the client 2ing of the Iceni had left half of his possessions to the 0oman Emperor

and family, e#pecting that this would protect his 2ingdom and family they were treated this

as if it were an unconditional surrender. In answer to $oedicia5s protest, her wife, she was

flogged and her daughter raped. 0ousing her own tribe and her neighbours, she swept

through southern $ritain, burning Colchester, ondon and Verulamium <near %t lbans=,

torturing every 0oman or 0oam sympathiser she could catch. The governor only )ust



avoided the total loss of the province. 8ero, who was the 0oman Emperor of that time, had

been inclined to abandon $ritain altogether.

The recovery of $ritain one decade after Bodicea appraisal was genuine but

unspectacular. $ut the outbrea2 of the civil war across the empire in @ AB revived the

spectre of generals fighting for supremacy. $y @ +;-+7 a succession of governors had

carried 0oman forces to the far north of %cotland and garrisons reached the edge of the

!ighlands 3 and were pressing ahead with 0omanization. The period from @ :( to &A( is

the age when $ritain truly became 0oman and its lasting features as part of the empire

emerged. The phenomenon of the absorption into the 0oman system was determined by the

devolution of the burden of routine administration to the local aristocracies that re-planned

the client 2ingdoms. In the beginning and middle of the second century, the developmentof the cities and towns of the 0oman $ritain came to their full e#tent. The administrative

centres of the civitates were provided with civic centres the forum and basilica that

provided market, law courts, civic offices and council chambers> the public baths which

provided the urban centre for rela#ation and social life> public monuments honouring

imperial figures and local authorities> theatres and amphitheatres. The flourishing of the

towns depended e/ually on the emergence of a lively urban population made up of

officials, professions, traders and s2illed artisans. $ut the urban e#pansion could not, of

course, have rested solely on the basis of a relatively small native aristocracy that accepted

the 0oman ways. $ut spread of town life was followed by the appearance of 6villas6 in the

country side indicating that the $ritish gentry retained their connection with the land.

There were also veterans discharged from the legions that settled in cities deliberately

founded Colchester, incoln, and *loucester. %ome of the inhabitants were immigrants or

visitors from other parts of the empire. 8evertheless, the population of 0oman $ritain

remained overwhelmingly Celtic.

In the time of !adrian, - man of restless and e#traordinary character and energy 3 a

wall was built on the line to which 0oman forces had been withdrawn in stages over the

thirty years since the e#treme point of e#pansion. The !adrian5s "all was brilliantly

original. %imilarly, the agricultural colonisation of the East nglia involved water

engineering on a grand scale. !adrianic ondon saw the demolition of the old forum and

basilica and their replacement with a comple# twice the normal size

In the ntonine period the development reached its first pea2, as the empire isgenerally considered to have been en)oying a golden age of tran/uillity and prosperity. In



$ritain the economic 0oman system had been adopted. It was based on a money economy

and large scale, and long distance trade. 0oman fashion was dominant and classical art and

decorations widely adopted. The most important artistic impact on the $ritons of 0oman

con/uest was the introduction of figurative style, particularly in sculpture, wall-painting

and mosaic, but also in minor arts and crafts 3 )ewellery, pottery, furniture, household

goods. The 0oman pottery alone reveals the e#istence of a 6throw away society6 that is

/uite different from what went before or came after. 0oman $ritain was a religious

2aleidoscope, ranging from the formal rites of the 0oman %tate 3 upiter, uno and

1inerva 3 and the Imperial Cult that had been grafted on to it, through a wide range of

religious imports to the local Celtic cults.

In the &A(s the mood began to change. In the reign of the ne#t emperor, 1arcus urelius, barbarian pressure on the frontiers of the empire became serious. The cities and the towns,

lying on the main roads, were the obvious targets for tribes or war parties on the move.

"alls were a first-rate form of the civic defence and their prevalence in $ritain must

indicate a great awareness of threat.

$y middle of the century, rampant inflation had severely damaged confidence in the

currency. t this point almost total disaster stuc2 as barbarians attac2ed in both East and

"est. It is not surprising to find ondon and 9or2 being chosen as twin capitals when$ritain was divided into two provinces. This was in line with the new policy to reduce the

member of the legions under the command of any one provincial governor and thus the

temptation to revolt. The planned con/uest of %cotland was called off but security of the

frontiers, was, however, accomplished. In the D:(5s the imminent collapse of the empire

was averted. 1a)or changes had ta2en place in the 0oman %tate in those few years which

ta2e us into the period called 6 Late oman !mpire6. The dividing force was the Emperor

@iocletian who initiated, through his reforms, a period of change that transformed the

0oman %tate. The new order must have arrived, in full force in $ritain after the re-con/uest

by Caesar in the "est, Constantinos I, father of Constantine the *reat.

Towards the end of this century, in ;B' when Theodosius, the 0oman emperor dies and the

empire is divided into two as a conse/uence of religious misunderstandings The Eastern

0oman Empire, including Constantinople and having as a runner rcadius and the "estern

0oman Empire, including 1ediolanum <1ilan= and 0avenna, run by !onorius.

!e was also capable of thin2ing and acting on the basis of @iocletian5s conservative but

immense reform, to set patterns for centuries to come. %o, the first half of the fourth



century can be called the last Golden "#e of the 0oman Empire due to Constantine.

%ocially and economically the %tate Empire in the "est was mar2ed by a polarisation of

wealth and, to some e#tent, power between the greater landed aristocracy on one hand and

emperor, court and army on the other. The financial administration of the provinces was

different from that in the early Empire. Though the financial head/uarters was in ondon,

the old provincial procurators had disappeared. The governors of the individual $ritish

provinces were responsible to the vicarius for the ta#ation.

The command structure for the army no longer had to correspond with the provinces.

new category of mobile field forces appeared having higher status and remuneration.

The final element in the Constantinian e/uation was the Church. The crisis of the third

century coincided with a widespread desire for a more personal religion that offered

consolation and meaning in this world and a better life in the ne#t. 0ecent research has

indicated a considerable amount of Christianization in the fourth century. The Golden "#e

did not long outline Constantine himself. !is death in ;;: left the empire divided between

his two sons within the dominions of the younger Constantine. Towards the end of the II

century the 0oman Empire had to give up defending the wall built by ntoninus in the

8orthern part of $ritain, as it wastes its power in the European territories. This is to be

understood as an economic and monetary fall. The commercial e#change is restricted> therural population finds the towns as a refuge, beyond their walls. The monetary system also

washes its values when the content of valuable metals diminishes. The feeling of insecurity

and unrest is favourable to the development of Christianity that e#pands remar2ably, in

spite of the persecutions against it that started in the third century.

$order problems became acute by ;A(, the moment when %cots from Ireland and icts

from %cotland attac2ed the 0oman $ritish Empire. In ;A( a palace conspiracy ended in the

murder of Constantine and the elevation of an officer of *ermanic descent named

$a#nentius. fter one year and a half aulus was appointed with the aim of hunting down

dissidents who introduced the reign of terror in which false evidence played a dominant

part, horrifying even the most loyal officers and that left $ritain in a wea2er state to resist

the barbarian troubles now pressing on them.

The nadir came in ;A: icts, %cots and ttcotti invaded $ritain. 4ran2s and %a#ons

attac2ed the coast of *aul. $oth the central imperial command 3 Emperor Valentinian and

the senior officers responsible for $ritain were ta2en by surprise.



The barbarians ranged unchec2ed in small bands, looting, destroying, ta2ing prisons,

or 2illing at will. $oth civil authority and military discipline bro2e down. Theodosius was

the one that saved the situation temporarily, and subse/uent reconstruction of $ritain seems

to have been both brilliant and thorough. The barbarian5s war parties and lands were pic2ed

off one by one and the %a#ons defeated at sea. 4orts were rebuilt and damaged cities

restored.

The five centuries that elapsed from that moment on up to the year &((( were decisive

for the building of the old continent. This is the period when different migratory

populations settle in specific areas giving birth to countries that are 2nown nowadays. This

is the period when the "estern Europe of atin culture with a *ermanic shift is separated

by the Eastern Europe of *ree2 culture with a strong %lavic shift. This is the greatmigration era.

The period is characterized by migratory waves coming from different places of the world

the Visigoths, ?strogoths directed to the %outh "est, the Vandals and lans, that crossed

the 0hine, the $urgunds, 4rancs and lamanni to the "est and utes, ngles and %a#ons to

$rittany> the ongobards to Italy. To the East of 0hine, the %a#ons, 4risian, Turingians,

$avarians settle while the country of the vars ma2es form beyond the @anube 0iver.

The :th century witnesses two important migratory waves of the %laves that settle between

the @anube, 8istre and Vistula, spreading then to Volga and adoga a2e, to the "est

towards the $altic %ea, and also to the Eastern lps and $ohemian 1ountains and the third

one to the %outhern @anube.

Europe is also the sub)ect of 1uslim invasion as the second wave, after having con/uered

Constantinople and divided $yzantium. They also con/uer %pain, before being stopped at

oitiers in :;D.

The I and century are also migratory periods. Europe is invaded by the 1uslim

Sara%ins, that settled in *allia and %icily and the Vi2ings coming from the 8orth that

plundered first and then they settled in 8ormandy and the $ritish Isles.

In this last period itFs worth mentioning the !ungarians that invaded the central anonic

field.

The conse/uences of the invasion are of political nature, as the "estern 0oman

Empire is replaced by little tribal states of *ermanic origins, i.e. soldiers grouped under the

leadership of a strong family representing an entire nation. These groups brea2 up and



regroup bac2 into different structures according to their political interests of their leaders.

This is the time when the ngles and %a#ons settle and draw their own country on the

$ritish Isles.

Gnder these circumstances, $ritain successfully too2 on the barbarian invaders and

henceforth bro2e decisively with 0oman rule. They have lost confidence in the system of

emperor, bureaucracy and army as the best way of securing their still prosperous way of

life. $y that time after groups of well-to-do 0oman provincials were starting to settle down

tolerably comfortably, employing, in alliance with or under the rule of barbarians. $ut for

the wea2ened middle and artisan classes the change must have been disastrous according

to the archaeological supports the massive pottery industry comes to an apparently abrupt

end> by 7D(-;( coinage ceases to be in regular use. These facts, incidentally, ma2e thedating of the end of the occupation of 0oman sites in the fifth century more difficult than

in earlier periods.

#. he Early $i%%le Ages

In the first three centuries after the year &(((, the "estern European settlements come

to a remar2able demographic and economic e#pansion, until a new political and social

organization ma2es its room feudalism.

It is based on the principle of awarding a piece of land < feodum= vassals by the landlords in

e#change of some services, by oath of allegiance <homa#ium&.

The whole "estern society is rebuilt starting from the very individual level, under the

Church ruling that vouched for theses loyalty agreements.

This is also the time of feudal monarchy when the 2ings were placed on the top of the

feudal hierarchy sometimes by violent operations as it happened with the 8orman

Con/uest in $ritain when "illiam became 2ing in &(AA. The feudal character is alsodominant in the way they rule their land and servants a representative e#ample is the

$ritish '$a#na ChartaH issued in &D&' by which the power of the landlords is

ac2nowledged by the country-less ing ohn whose power is limited.

It is also to be understood that the feudal social organization led both to the settlement of

national states, and the affirmation of a new social layer of the bourgeoisie. They were

grouped in trade associations protected by the landlords under loyalty agreements, and

awarded specific privileges called J franchises(.



In &(AA the country was a farming land originally owned outright by the men who

settled and cleared them and inherited by their children. $ut these independent farms had

no defence against the Vi2ing raids or resources to tide them over disasters li2e cattle

sic2ness, a series of bad harvests, fire or storm. %mall land owners had surrendered their n

nominal ownership of the land to some protectors who in turn, held the land in duty to this

process of freedom loss was in fact the gain of a social system, the end of anarchy

somebody higher. $y &(AA the system was elaborate and stable. The social strata were

made of serfs or slaves, cottagers or cottars, then villeins, farming around fifty acres, then

thanes who drew rents in 2ind from the villeins, then earls each ruling one of the si# great

earldoms that covered the country and above all, the 2ing. In parallel to this secular social

ladder was the hierarchy of the church, from village priests to archbishops. 8obody was

above the law.

"omen used to card, spin, and dye, <wove= the wool and ma2er clothes, boil the meat

and ba2e the bread, mil2 the sheep and goats, perhaps cows, ma2e the butter and cheese,

love and scold the children, feed the hens, wor2 in the field at harvest, probably ma2e the

pots and brew the beer. The children, no burden by school, herded animals, gees or sheep

or goats or pigs according to their size.

?f course they went to church where they could hear the sermon of the priest in theirlanguage as religious wor2s had been translated from atin. ?ut of doors they played some

2ind of football that evolved later to the esoteric comple#ities of cric2et. Indoors they

played drafts or chec2ers and clever people played chess. They hunted and fished through

necessities, but both have always had an element of sport. The rivers, now polluted, were

teeming with fish, even salmon 3 water mill commonly paid a ta# of eels 3 and the forest

was full of game> but deer were strictly the ing5s or earl5s prerogative.

The arts and crafts of England were 2nown and valued all over "estern Europe,

especially the illumination of manuscript, embroidery and gold and silver> and there was a

lively tradition of English prose. %uch wor2s of art were mainly creation of the church or

the patronage of the rich. The pagan custom of burying treasures with the dead had ended

at the coming of Christianity. The villagers celebrated festivals of the church and also

pagan festivals that were preserved in spite of the church.

$ut the sense of belonging to an English state, under English law was created before

&(AA. The idea of unity of the English people according to $ede <English historian

!cclesiastical )istor* of the !n#lish +ation in -s= 6goes bac2 to the nglo %a#on pagan



peoples who worshipped stic2s and stones at the edge of the world6 as ope *regory

famously put it. In the &(th century, when the English nation included @anes, 8orsemen,

$ritons, %a#ons and ngles, the 2ings who created the 2ingdom of England still saw their

tas2 as the fulfilment of the promises implied in $ede and English people under one 2ing.

$ede gave the English history which all could share, an interpretation which made sense of

their past and their future. The English language was a response to the new unity and

identity trends. The old sub)ect-ob)ect-verb language became a sub)ect-verb-ob)ect

language, as was the speech of the %candinavian Vi2ing settlers, and this had already

became English, common speech before Chaucer5s day. The state had institutional

structures which in the long run of the English history have tended towards allowing

citizens certain freedoms to pursue their own wor2 and happiness while protecting them

from oppression. The "est %a#on dynasty in the Vi2ing ge organized the society for war,

with heavy burdens on land owners and peasantry. They based their territorial units on the

old shires, on 0oman or $ritish territorial grouping. Throughout the 1iddle ges the

boroughs the hundreds and their courts were crucial for ta#ation, )ustice, policing, law,

military defence, and for the administration of the oaths which bound individuals on 2in

groups to 2ing and community. bove the level of the hundred the old %heriff, which is

still an office in G% 3 administered the shire through bailiffs, now held office in each

hundred <originally the bailiff was the 2ing5s )usticer employed in the hundred for the

detection of crime=. The hundred was the 2ey unit of local administration. The shires were

still wor2ing institutions into the twentieth century, to which the reforms of the nineteenth

and twentieth centuries gave a new lease of age until the reorganization of &B:7. The sense

of chosen people became a wor2able conception of the society of order and mutual

obligation.

"hen ing Edward died, without any children, there were at least si# choices to elect

an heir. The hereditary claim of ing "illiam was only by marriage. The news that 2ing

Edward was dead, but also that !arold was immediately crowned and "illiam had not

been warned or consulted or even given any chance to ma2e his claims. ll the courts in

Europe 2new that he was Edward5s heir. !e could not accept the news and do nothing

about it. !e decided to sail in force to England that very summer, to challenge !arold in

battle and claim his )ust inheritance. There is practically no account of the events from the

English side> for many years after, the English were too devastated by their disaster to

write any entries in the nglo %a#on Chronicle. The battle too2 placer on the field of



!astings which is now partly covered by the buildings of the abbey "illiam that was

founded there as a penance for the slaughter, and by the town that grew up round it> the end

of the battle came soon when !arold was wounded and died. $ut the English never became

8orman> they remained most stubbornly English, absorbed the invaders and made of the

mi#ture a new 2ind of Englishness.

@u2e "illiam of 8ormandy was acclaimed 2ing in &(AA in "estminster bbey on the

very Christmas @ay. The 8orman guards outside the abbey, believing that inside something

wrong happened, because of the shouts and acclamations, they set fire to the

neighbourhood houses. The crowds rushed outside, but only the mon2s, the bishop and a

few clergy managed to complete the ceremony of consecration of the 2ing. !is position

was a precarious one, in spite of his victory at !astings. !e promissed that every manshould be protected by his own law according to his ran2 and part of the country in which

he lived. $ut the measure of his promises was seen in the chronicle written by the 8orman

1on2 ?rderic Vitalis, which became the most important source for the history of England

and 8ormandy between the Con/uest and &&7&. !e gave away every man5s land to his own

followers and 2insmen. The 8orman rulers had to face risings every year and they used to

live in military operational units. They were of 8orse descent, but their Vi2ing blood was

much diluted they had not particular aptitude for war and no feudal hierarchy, but a well

preserved administrative one that dated bac2 to Carolingian times there were /uotas

imposed and obligation to serve in the royal family. They built castles to dominate the

sub)ect population. England received not )ust a new royal family, but also a new ruling

class, a new culture and language. $y the &(+A there were only two nerving English lords

of any account, and most of the landlords were 8ormans. fter &(:( no Englishman was

appointed a bishop. $y &(+A the nglo-%a#on aristocracy was no more and its place was

ta2en by new 8orman elite who retained its old lands on the Continent so the two separate

countries, England and 8ormandy, now became a simple cross-Channel political

community. 4rom now on, until &D(7, the histories of England and 8ormandy were

ine#tricably interwoven.

The 8ormans also brought with them to England the 4rench language and the 4rench

culture. The ngevin con/uest of &&';-7 had, as an effect, the arrival of the Court of !enry

II and Eleanor of /uitaine that reinforced the dominance of 4rench culture.

t this time the foreignness of English was the most stri2ing. The old institutions and laws became illegal> the old English custom of local government, with local hearings in the



vernacular had been done away with> In ecclesiastical architecture, although churches built

in England at that time, often contain some recognizably English elements, their design

came from abroad, sometimes from the 1editerranean world Italy, %icily or even

$yzantium and 4rance. The castles were strengthened with iron and stone and new ones

were built. They had fire places, latrines, richly decorated chapels and water cisterns to

avoid the need to continually fetch water from the well within the bailey. "illiam of %ens,

of 4rench origin was called to rebuild the choir of Canterbury Cathedral after the fire of

&&:7. %imilarly the cathedral of "estminster bbey was heavily influenced by 4rench

models. Its influence in the field of music, literature, architecture, 4rench became a truly

international rather than )ust a national language as it was used by any one who considered

himself civilised. well educated Englishman was trilingual English would be his mother

tongue> he would have some 2nowledge of atin and he would spea2 4rench fluently.

4rench was vital in the cosmopolitan society. It was the language of law and estate

management, as well as the language of song and verse, of chanson and romance. $ut

popular culture, the tale lasted for long. Comics, novels and stories still evo2e the 8orman

yo2e, with pluc2y free %a#on pitted against regimented Continental despots 0obin !ood

stands up for the right of the oppressed %a#ons against the wic2ed %heriff of 8ottingham.

The legend of ing rthur was fi#ed in the popular imagination soon after the 8orman

Con/uest. ccording to *eoffrey of 1onmouth < )istor* of the /in#s of Britain=, rthur

was a hero, a 8apoleon of the @ar2 ges. !e has been the inspiration of the great medieval

romances of ChrKtien de Troyes and Thomas 1allory, the epics of Tennyson and the re-

0aphaelites. The myth has lost none of its appeal and power in modern literature, film and

popular culture from @isney and $resson to Indiana ones and 1onty ython the novels

about rthur show no sign of drying up.

%urprisingly, in the hundred years or so, after the Con/uest, there was virtually no

intermarriage between the 8orman aristocracy and the English. tremendous proliferation

of better written records occurred during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. bout D,(((

writes and charters survived from this historical period> it is still time that whole classes of

the population, serfs, for e#ample, was now concerned with documents in terms of

business. In the late twelfth century there were some schools of highest learning in

England and by the &DD(5s two universities, first at ?#ford and then at Cambridge, had

been established. Throughout England the signs pointed to an increasing number of schools

al all levels.



fter &(:&, William 0 , the Con/ueror held on England was fairly secure. The "elsh and the

%cots did not trouble him. %candinavian rulers continued to loo2 upon England with

ac/uisitive eyes but their threat was never materialised. !is attention was drawn especially

by the vulnerability of 8ormandy as his neighbours were too2 every opportunity to

diminish his power, especially through his eldest son, 0obert, who became involved in a

series of intrigues against his father. In one of his minor battle, in uly &(+:, he was in)ured

and died. "hile 0obert was in rebellion at that time, the 2ing5s younger brother, "illiam,

dutifully and pointedly, was to be found in attendance at his father5s beside. England, the

Con/ueror5s vast ac/uisition, was used to provide for his youngest son, "illiam, but

naturally, 0obert ob)ected to this. ccording to ?rder Vitalis, he wanted to reunite England

to 8ormandy in order to ease the political problem. 4ortunately for 0ufus, "illiam II, his

brother5s case went almost by default 0obert stayed in 8ormandy. "hen ope Grban II

began preaching an e#pedition aiming at recovering erusalem from the 1uslims, 0obert

Courthouse was offered an honourable and e#citing way out of his increasing difficult

domestic political position. In order to e/uip himself for the long march he pawned

8ormandy to "illiam for a loan. 0ufus, "illiam II, had restored his father5s 2ingdom to its

former frontiers.

9et, for all his success as a generous leader of his soldiers, "illiam5s reputation has

remained consistently low. !e made his feudal lords his vassals, to secure the frontiers that

stretched England and 8ormandy. lthough a serious-minded churchman, accustomed to

the conventional piety and sober discretion of his father5 court, he never married and he

died without an heir. hunting accident brought his life to an abrupt end. !enry, his

youngest brother, was there when the 2ing died, and he too2 possession of the treasury he

went straight to "estminster where he was crowned. few wee2s later, when 0obert, his

elder brother arrived bac2 in 8ormandy, he avoided a military clash with him, as he

undertoo2 to pay him a pension. s for the domestic affairs, the *regorian reform

movement placed the 2ing in a difficult position he tried to strengthen the unity between

the state and the church, but it was Theobald $ec2et, a ondon Citizen, of 8orman origin

nominated as archbishop of Canterbury that made this unity fell apart. fter he was

supported by the 2ing for the nomination, he felt responsible for a lay community of mon2s

and he refused !enry II to en)oy the same customs and privileges over the church. ess

than a year later $ec2et was e#iled. $ut when he came bac2 he was 2illed in the cathedral

of Canterbury by an official delegation. The 2ing swore innocent of any involvement with



this crime. Thomas $ec2et became the most potent saint of the day. )enr* 00 <&&'7-&&+B=

too2 over without difficulty, as it was the first undisputed succession to the English throne

for over a hundred years. !e was potentially the most powerful ruler in Europe of that

time, overshadowing the 2ing of 4rance.

The ngevin empire was a time of economic growth. n important change was that

land became a commodity, a piece of property which could be bought and sold used as a

security for loans. This change helped fuel inflation which was stimulated further by

imports of silver for wor2s of art. The wool trade stimulated the growth of towns, and

particularly of ports. The first step he too2 for his realm was that by diplomatic pressure,

he forced the young 2ing of %cotland, 1alcolm IV, to restore Cumberland, "estmorland

and 8orthumbria. !e recovered territories in 8antes, Toulouse, and 8orman Ve#im. Thesheer size of his empire inevitably stimulated the development of local administration

which could deal with routine matters of )ustice, finance in his absence. *overnment

became increasingly comple# and beaurocratic. This development has led to him being

regarded as the founder of the English common law.

$ut 0ichard I <&&+B-&&BB= ac/uired an unchallenged position by his alliance with

hilip ugustus. %ince he had been made du2e of /uitaine in &&:D, he spent most of his

life on the Continent, in Crusades as he felt responsible to assist the 2ingdom of erusalem.lthough unable to regain it, 0ichard signed the treaty of affa in &&BD that enabled the

crusader states to survive for another century. $ut while he was 2ept captive &Lone year in

ustria, some territories in England and on the Continent were lost. $y the end of &&B+,

after he was released for &((,((( mar2s, he recaptured almost everything by his s2ilful

diplomacy, fine generalship and his greater resources. In &&BB 0ichard suffered a deadly

wound when he was engaged in suppressing a rebellion led by the count of ngouleme and

the viscount of imoges.

0ichard left no legitimate children and when he died the different parts of the ngevin

Empire chose ohn as his successor and the last ngevin. In his time inflation tended to

erode the real value of royal revenues, and many families and religious houses were in

financial difficulties. s a result, ohn levied fre/uent ta#es and tightened up the laws

governing the forest <a profitable but highly unpopular source of income= through 1agna

Charta, issued in &D&', which stipulated 6 1ud#ement b* peers or b* law of the land so that

to no one will sell, to no one will den* or dela* ri#ht of 1ustice2 . "hen he wase#communicated for his order to confiscate all church properties, he became vulnerable to



rebellion and invasion. "hen he died, in &D&A, he left a country torn into two by a civil war

which was going badly. !enry III <&DDA-&D:D= !enry, ohn5s nine years old son, began to

rule in his own right most until &D;D. 1ost of the struggles for power too2 place in the

council chamber and appeals to arms were rare and brief. s a part of some conciliatory

moves, 1agna Charta was amended and reissued. $ut while lords of the council

concentrated on their own rivalries they were less concerned about the overseas

inheritance. The effect of this was that the territorial balance of the twentieth century has

reversed. $y the Treaty of aris <&D'B= !enry had to give up claims to 8ormandy, n)ou

and oteau and did homage to uis I for *ascoigne and the government initiated a far

reaching programme of reform.

!enry was a good family man he happily married to Eleanor of rovince in &D;A and he provided generously for his wife family when life became difficult for his half-brothers. In

the last years of !enry III5s reign the full restoration of royal authority was combined with

the recognition that the 6customs of the realm6 including both Charters of iberties should

be upheld. The arliament was founded, although it was not a new body. The term

arliament first appeared when the Courts of aw were reorganized at the end of !enry

III5s minority, as a court of final appeal, a role that it has never lost. !e rebuilt "estminster

bbey when his son, Edward went by crusade.

!enry5s heir of the throne, Edward, was on a crusade when he received the news about his

father death and he proclaimed himself a 2ing. !e was the last lantagenet 2ing to hold

court at $ordeau#. nd his leaving, in &D+B, mar2ed the end of an era. In &D:7 Edward

made an in/uiry into the activity of royal and baronial officials. s a result it led to issue of

new laws on a wide range of sub)ects, but unfortunately, with no law code in the manner of

ustinian. The new laws were mainly concerned with the rights of the 2ings and the

liberties of the sub)ect. !e was the one to begin the the era of perpetual wars. The Crown

e#panded its territories in 8orth and "est "ales to form a principality that covered half of

the country this was conferred on the 2ing eldest son as the first English born rince of

"ales. 4irmness, fairness and conciliation mar2ed the relation between the new governors

and the "elsh population. Edward I e#erted e/ually the power over %cotland although the

country had its own monarch and the %cotsmen5s sense of independence was fierce. !e

too2 advantage of being invited to settle the /uestion of succession and he declared himself

6ord %uperior6 of %cotland. Edward I also stripped Ireland of its resources of men, money



and supplies for his wars and castle-building in "ales and %cotland. That led to

administrative abuse and decay of order.

In this time England had reached the pea2 of its medieval population levels. figure

of five million inhabitants may be suggested for England in &;;;(, with &( M living in

towns. It was a prosperous society and the peasantry shared in the general prosperity.

%ociety had grown more prosperous through the growth of e#changes, and the e#pansion

of the mar2et economy. The number of mar2ets continued to increase, to serve the needs of

the local e#changes> it was also an increase in the number of those who did not support

themselves from the produce of their own holdings wage labourers, craftsmen, those

engaged in e#tractive and manufacturing industry. They were dependant on the mar2et,

which made them vulnerable to fluctuations in the price of grain. merchant of $ruges in&D'(5s, surveying the main sources of his trade, noted that6 from England come wood,

lead, tin, coal and cheese6 England was a country rich in minerals, which supplied the raw

materials for the manufacturing industry of "estern Europe. The cloth industry was based

on household system of production and corresponded to different stages of the output. In

the fifteenth century the cloth went further afield to the $altic and 1editerranean. In the

region of Toulouse the marriage-contracts often specified the source of the cloth that was to

be provided for the bride. In the early fourteenth century this came from 4landers and

$rabant, but in the &7'(s it was the English cloth that was often specified. ?rdinances of

the local variety made by the 2ing5s council and the civic officers made the prices of

foodstuffs, ta2e-away meals and accommodation to be fi#ed. @octors were to be properly

/ualified, and prostitutes, whether /ualified or not, were to be 2ept off the streets.

rchaeological findings show some other professional occupations coal, linen, iron,

pottery, 2ilns. The records of royal governments show coal put to military use, as fuel for

smelting the iron used for siege engines and to cast anchors for the royal barges. There

were individual 6free6 miners also who had small holdings and wor2ed at mining only

part-time. %ilver vessels were widespread in late 1edieval England. The chalice and

pattern found in twelfth century priest5s burial are typical of many such. In the thirteenth

century the main chalice in each church would be made of silver but also a wide variety of

pewter spread to households of all levels.

In 1ay &;;:, hilip VI of 4rance declared *ascony forfeit. It was not to be until the &7'(5s

than one of his successors was able to carry this )udgement out. The intervening period is

commonly referred to as the !undred 9ears "ar. Edward proclaimed that it was he who



was the rightful 2ing of 4rance, his title descending via his mother Isabella. The 2ing5s

claims in 4rance, the victories he had won brought uncertainty to 4rance. !e died in &;::

and the $lac2 rince, his eldest son, his successor, had died the previous year. 0ichard oLf

$ordeau#, then aged ten, was crowned as 0ichard III.

Edward III introduced in to England the first stri2ing cloc2s, the earliest of which was

installed in the 2eep of "indsor Castle in &;A&. The cloc2s were made in England but the

technology was imported from Italy. The 2ing taste was clearly revealed by his residences

his bath-houses must have been among the wonders of the day. There was water supply at

"estminster. !e established the ?rder of *arter and he became famous for his shows

organized each year on %t. *eorge5s @ay.

In the time of war, the profession of arms developed into the famous tournaments, a

peaceful warfare in which all the 2nightly class of England6 processed in their finest

clothes, their tunics in red velvet and their caps of white fur. fter the procession, on the

three following days, battle was )oined. This was left to the professionals. The ladies,

watching on the sidelines, were central to the whole concept of chivalry. The tournament

was courtship display )ust as much as it was training for war.

dramatic and most significant fourteenth-century European history was the $lac2

@eath, between &;7B &;BB which originated in Central sia. It spread by sea from the

1editerranean, and thence along the shipping lanes which lin2ed it with 8orthern Europe.

The fearful mortality rolled on, following the course of the sun into every port of the

2ingdom. eople did die, and in great numbers. It is impossible to provide e#act figures for

neither the church nor the state 2ept any register of the deathsL. longside the plague there

was also a whole range of infection diseases, influenza, typhoid and tuberculosis. gainst

which there was no inoculation. The fifteen century, in %ylvia Thrupp5s phrase, was 6the

golden age of bacteria6. The fall in the population had important repercussion in the

English village. The peasants moved away and their manpower and service were lost to the

lords and to the village community entirely. The first very clearly visible on the ground

was the decay of buildings. The abandonment of some settlements does not seem

surprising either. The difficulties of everyday life, the new poll ta#es imposed for the one

hundred years war against 4rance, the corruption at the court, the grievances of individuals

and community /uic2ly grew into a ma)or revolt. The events were so dramatic. The

prophet of the rioters was ohn $all, and their general was "att Tyler that turned thegroups into a force with some sense of discipline. The demands were clear and the



arguments well-rehearsed. They re/uired that labor services be performed only on the basis

of free contract, though they wanted also the right to rent land at fi#ed price.

&. he u%or's Age

The economic growth encouraged trade and urban renewal, inspired a housing

revolution, enhanced the sophistication of English manners and bolstered new and e#citing

attitudes among individuals derived from 0eformation ideas and Calvinist theology.

England became economically healthier, more e#pansive and more optimistic under Tudors

than at any time since the 0oman occupation. $ut there were still pernicious evils of the

society inflation, speculation in land, enclosures, unemployment, vagrancy, poverty, urban

s/ualor. Certainly, a vigorous mar2et arose among dealers in defective titles to land, with

resulting harassment of many legitimate occupiers. 0ising population, after the $lac2

lague, especially the urban population, put in tense strain on the mar2ets themselves

demand for food often outstripped supply, and agricultural prices began to rise faster than

industrial prices from the beginning of the reign of !enry VIII, which accelerated the

si#teenth century progress. $ut the greatest triumph of Tudor England was its ability to

feed itself. 1althus in his 6Essay on the rinciples on opulation6 in &:B+ listed some

traditional means to 2eep the population balance according to the resources of food

available such as contraception, fewer or later marriages, natural disasters and wars. $utthe positive chec2 of mass mortality on a national scale was absent from Tudor5s England

with a possible e#ception of 1ary5s government after &''', when a serious mortality crisis

occurred. $ut the starvation crisis in England were abating, rather than worsening, over

time. @espite the vicissitudes of price inde#, the conse/uences of changed patterns in

agriculture and proliferation of vagabondage, multiple occupations - domestic self-

employment and cottage industries flourished in this age. Town dwellers grew vegetables,

2ept animals and brewed beer, wage-labourers employed by great households received

meat and drin2 in addition to cash income.

The Tudor practiced their belief that ability good service and loyalty to the regime,

irrespective of a man5s social origins and bac2ground, were primary grounds of

appointments, promotions, favours, rewards. This belief was most evident in !enri VII5s

use of royal patronage by which the Crown awarded grants of offices, lands, pensions,

annuities or other valuable prere/uisites to its e#ecutives and dependants, and was thus its

principal weapon of political control, its most powerful motor of political ascendancy. $utthe revenues of the Tudors were increasingly inade/uate in proportion to the e#panding



functions of central beaurocracy. !e was the first 2ing that used penal bonds to enforce

what he considered to be acceptable behaviour on his sub)ects.

!enry VIII, who succeeded, began his triumphant reign by marrying his late brother5s

widow, Catherine of ragon. "ith the Tudor dynasty apparently secure, England had

started to become vulnerable. !is first divorce dropped into the religious maelstrom of his

time. lthough Catherine had borne five children, only the rincess 1ary had survived, but

the 2ing demanded the security of a male heir to protect the fortunes of the Tudor5s

dynasty. That is why he soon believed that papal primacy was a ploy of human invention to

deprive 2ings and emperors of their legitimate inheritances. !is divorce made him believe

in his royal supremacy over English Church. %o he too2 charge of his policy and

government. nd finally threw off England5s allegiance to 0ome in an unsurpassed burst of revolutionary statute-ma2ing some acts by which all English )urisdiction, both secular and

religious, now sprang from the 2ing 3 and abolished the pope5s rights to decide English

ecclesiastical cases. !enry VIII now controlled the English Church as its supreme head in

both temporal and doctrinal matters. 1onasteries were dissolved in &';A. The process was

interrupted by a rebellion, the 6ilgrimage of *race6, which was brutally crushed by the

use of 1artial law. The process that followed was the wholesale destruction of fine *othic

construction, melting down of medieval metal wor2s and )ewellery and sac2ing of libraries

- the most e#tensive acts of licensed vandalism perpetrated in the whole of the $ritish

history.

nne $oleyn was already pregnant when the 2ing married her, and the future Elisabeth

I was born. !enry was bitterly disappointed that she was not the e#pected son, blaming

nne and *od. nne was ousted and e#ecuted in &';A. !enry immediately married ane

%eymour, but she died &D days later after she gave birth to rice Edward. The ne#t wife he

married ne#t was nne of Cleves to win European allies, but she didn5t suit> they divorced

easily, as the union was never consummated. Catherine !oward came ne#t as !enry5s fifth

/ueen. %he was e#ecuted in &'7D for adultery, and finally he married Catherine arr.

Internally, he conceived the English hegemony within the $ritish Isles 3 "ales, Ireland

and %cotland. The Gnion of England and "ales had been legally accomplished by

arliament in &';A. "ales was made sub)ect to the full operation of royal writs and to

English laws. English language became fashionable. Englishmen regarded the Gnion as the

dawn of a civilizing proLcess, the "elsh men, by contrast, considered the anne#ation as



crude, for it was not a treaty between negotiating partie, as was the case with %cotland in

&:(:.

Tudor Irish olicy had begun with !enry VII5s decision that all laws made in England

were automatically to apply to Ireland and that the Irish arliament could only legislate

with the 2ing of England5s prior consent. In the wa2e of Irish pressure and the revolt of the

merican Colonies, the $ritish arliament abandoned its control over Ireland in &:+;. The

ct of Gnion of &+(& reversed the change in favour of direct rule from "estminster.

The fist male successor of !enry VIII, Edward VI, never en)oyed a good health, and

by the late spring &''; died. $y right of $irth, as well as under !enry VIII5s will, 1ary,

Catherine of ragon5s daughter, was the lawful successor. %he succeeded in being safely

enthroned at "estminster. 1ary5s true goal was always England5s reunion with 0ome>

persecution was a minor aspect of her programme, although he burnt a minimum D:7

persons> %he was not successful in her intend to restore Catholicism in the country.

Elisabeth I, daughter of !enry VIII and 1ary $oleyn ascended the throne in &''+ and

she ruled England for forty-four years. It was the time that the nglican Church became

the strength of Tudor5s domestic stability. It was plainly rotestant, even if it retained altars

and vetements. fter &''B the Catholic cause was directly lin2ed to that of dynastic

intrigue which aimed to depose Elisabeth in favour of 1ary %tuart, of %cotland. !er

grandmother had been !enry5s sister, 1argaret, so she hoped that the Virgin Nueen die and

she would succeed her in a Catholic coup. $ut when she lost the battle at ongside and fled

to England, Elisabeth imprisoned her and e#ecuted her in &'+:.

?ne of the most important successes of Elisabeth5s e#ternal politics was the defeat of

the %panish rmada which tried to invade England and control the English Channel. The

country had gained considerable prestige, but Elisabeth never again committed her whole

fleet in battle at once.

Elisabeth5s last years were tainted by the cumulative strain of a war economy, the Irish

crisis, Esse#5s rebellion and series of localized famines. These years mar2 also the first 2ey

phase of the English housing revolution. robate inventories suggest that the average size

of the Tudor house was three rooms at the beginning of the dynasty. Towards the end of

Elizabethan5s reign it was four or five rooms, but after &A&(-7( saw the figure rise to si# or

more rooms.



(. he )tuarts

The population of England had been growing to a steady progression of economic

output and on the family planning habits of the population.

In &A(( England consisted of a series of regional economies achieving self-sufficiency.

1ost mar2et towns were places where the produce of the area was displayed and sold. $y

the end of the century, England had for long been the largest free trade area in Europe.

*radually, a single, integrated national economy was emerging. gricultural and

manufactured goods e#changing led to the shop age. $y the &AB(, most towns, even the

small ones, had shops in the modern sense. The towns in which hundreds gathered

regularly for local courts and commissions, encouraged the service and leisure industries.

%ome small centres of manufacturing towns, such as $irmingham and %heffield or cloth-

furnishing towns, such as 1anchester or eeds or shipbuilding towns such as Chatham,

became notable urban centres. %ome of them increasingly concentrated on the sales of

services. The age of the spa and the resort was dawning. atterns of migration begin to be

admitted young people moved to ta2e apprentiship or tenancies at farms. The other was

subsistence migration of those often travelling long distances to find employment

opportunities. n increasing number of people were forcibly transported as a punishment

for criminal acts, particularly in the &A'o5s. In addition to the transatlantic settlers, anun2nown number of crossed the English Channel and settled in Europe ma2ing for

religious houses or mercenary military activity. "hereas the si#teenth century had seen

England become a noted haven for religious refugees, in the &:th century, Europe and

merica received religious refugees from England. The only significant immigration in the

&:th century was of ews who floc2ed in after the Cromwellian regime had removed the

legal bars on their residence and of 4rench !uguenots escaping from ouis IV5s

persecution in the &A+(s.

4rom social point of view England of the &:th century was that of gentry and peerage.

Everybody else had economic status husbandman, cobbler, merchant, attorney, etc, but the

peerage and gentry were noble, everybody else was ignoble or churchlish. The gentleman

or nobleman derived his income and he had time and leisure to devote himself to arts of

government. !e was independent in )udgement and trained to ma2e decisions. !e rented

out his lands, wore cloth and learn read atin> the yeoman was a wor2ing farmer, wore

leather, read and wrote in English. $y the end of the &:

th

century, there was an emergingsocial group of men whose interests, wealth and power grew out of they invested in trade,



government loans, in mineral resources, in improved farming. It became 2nown as

aristocracy.

"hile rivalries in the colonial spheres were intensifying, no territories were ceded and

e#pansion continued steadily. The monarchy lac2ed coercitive power there was no

standing army or organized police power. The guards which protected the 2ing and

performed ceremonial functions were created by the 0estoration. The Crown5s control of

schools and universities, of pulpits, of the press was never complete, and it may have

declined with time.

The dynasty was dominated by several Civil "ars. It is probable that at some moments

in more than on in ten of all adult males was in arms. rmies had to be raised in every

region and the money and administration to sustain them The two traditional war parties

were the ing5s army and the arliament5s rmy but the hostility of the populace to both

sides made the fruits of victory hard to pic2. To win the wars, arliament used to impose

massive ta#ation and granted e#tensive powers, even arbitrary to its agents. Their source

was mainly religious and against centralized military rule. $ut the people became

convinced that the Civil "ar had never solved anything, but a much more radical

transformation of political institutions was necessary.

4rom &A7B-'; England was governed by the 0ump arliament which assumed unto

itself all legislative and e#ecutive powers. ?liver Cromwell decided to call an assembly of

saints whose tas2 was to institute a programme that he hoped it would bring the people to

recognize and to own the promises and prophecies of *od. 4rom @ecember &A'; until his

death in %eptember &A'+, Cromwell ruled England as ord rotector and !ead of the

%tate. $y e#ecuting Charles, the first %tuart, Cromwell cut himself from )ustifications of

political authority rooted in the past. !is self )ustification lay in the future, in the belief that

he was fulfilling *od5s will. To achieve the future promissed by *od, Cromwell governed

arbitrarily. Ironically, he was offered the Crown. !e became source of instability of the

regime he ran. "ith his death, the republic collapsed. Eighteen months after Cromwell5s

death, one section of the army decided that free elections should be held and Charles II was

recalled and was restored unconditionally. !is father was declared to have begun at the

moment of his father5s death. The 0estoration %ettlement sought to limit royal powers by

handing power bac2 from the centre to the localities. !e sought to restore the Church of

England, but with reforms that would ma2e it acceptable to the ma)ority of moderateuritans. 4inally he assented to the ct of uniformity which restored the ?ld Church and



promoted religious tolerance for all non nglicans. !is son ames continued his father5s

policy so he issued a @eclaration of Indulgence giving the Catholics full religion freedom.

The abolition of monarchy and the e#perience of republican rule had a very limited

impact. The problems of matching resources to responsibilities had become clearer> but the

problems themselves had neither increased nor diminished. It was the ideal of democratic

groups who wanted to ma2e governors more accountable. $ut these ideologies were

incompatible with the development of a global $ritish Empire that started to e#pand into

the "est Indies and along the Eastern seaboard of 8orth merica, into e#tensive trade

networ2s with %outh merica, "est frica, India and Indonesia. This could only be

sustained by a massive increase in the ability of the state in the second Civil "ar of &A++.

The $ritish revolution does not stand as a turning point. It may have achieved little,

even less about political and social institutions, but it deeply affected the intellectual

values it gave way to the age of pragmatism and individualism. "hen ohn oc2e wrote

in his 6Treaties of the *overnment6 <&AB(= that all men are naturally in a state of perfect

freedom to order, their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons as they thin2 fit

without as2ing the leave of depending upon the will of any man, he was proclaiming a

message only made possible by the disillusionment with old ideas, but a message which

was to ma2e much possible in the decades to come.

*. he $aking of the English E"pire

The early si#teenth century mar2ed a new period in the $ritish Isles !istory. In the &7 th

and &'th century, after the fall of the 8orman Empire, independent centres of local powers

were spread in many areas of the land and by the mid &: th century they were incorporated

within a larger whole. In &A'o ?liver Cromwell5s army con/uered %cotland that came into

a parliamentary union with England in &:(:. arge scale emigration was characteristic for

the twelfth and thirteen century, and Ireland became the first attraction for colonists from

%cotland, "ales and England. In %cotland, the government of Elisabeth en)oyed a good

deal of influence which increased when ames VI of %cotland succeeded to the English

Crown in &A(; and the country witnessed the gradual incorporation within a ondon-based

empire.

The conditions for the emergence of an empire were due to economic and political

developments the rise of cloth industry that led to a prosperous society, and the political,

administrative centralization around ondon that made possible its authority upon the rest



of the $ritish Isles. %o far as Ireland was concerned, it was under Thomas Cromwell,

!enry VIII5s chief 1inister during the &';(5s, that Irish magnates were stopped in their

ascendancy to rule the country, and it was in &';: that si# of the 4itzgeralds who had risen

in revolt, in &';7 at Tyburn. The Irish system of land holding, based upon the rights of the

2in would be replaced by the $ritish freehold transmitted by primogeniture. The pro-

English landlords of the east-coast rose in favour of a peaceful e#tension of nglicisation,

according to the model of "ales that was seen as a 6bac2ward6 society, successfully

6modernized6 under English auspices. The e#tension of southern English influence of 6law

and order6 to 8orthern England, "ales and Ireland were lin2ed to the religious changes of

the si#teenth-century in Europe. It was during Cromwell5s years that the government was

placed behind a utheran-style 0eformation when the symbols of change were the royal

supremacy, the translation of the $ible into vernacular, clerical marriage and the

dissolution of the monasteries. %cotland remained untouched by these changes. In &'75s the

English rmy invaded %cotland, but it was given help from 4rench that seemed to be as

strong as ever, under the 0egent, 1arie de 1edici. 1ary, the heir of the %cottish throne,

was sent for her education to 4rance and betrothed to the @auphin. $ut the outbrea2 of the

religious wars in 4rance left the way open for Elisabeth to support the English revolution

in %cotland. !enceforth, %cotland was clearly associated with that of England. 1onarchy,

0eformation and common law became all powerful symbols of a national unity.

The culture of ondon, with relatively high rates of literacy, growing number of

grammar schools, the e#pansion of colleges and halls at ?#ford and Cambridge, a growth

of industry and the development of the city as a financial and trading centre were ta2ing on

a character different from that of the north and west. The civil war of the 0oses made

possible the rise of a monarchy based upon the power of ondon. There were also the

!ouse of Commons and the !ouse of ords that came also to reflect the political and

cultural dominance of the %outh East of the territory.

The impact of the 0eformation provided an additional impulse towards the assertion of

full cultural dominance by the %outh over the rest of England and "ales. The decisive

decades were the &';(, 7(, and '( during which the ideas of uther, Owingli and Calvin

made rapid headway in the literature areas of the %outh and East. @uring the &';(5s

Thomas Cromwell dissolved the monasteries and the chantries that were dedicated to

saying messes and prayers for the dead.



Nueen 1ary <&'';-+= could not establish the status-/uo, and on the contrary, there was

a reaction against her repressive policy against the rotestants that perished by hundreds in

the 3ires of Smithfield .

The spread of the 0eformations ideas in the %outh determined the social reactions in

the 8orth and "est against the changes in Church 2nown under the name of 6 4il#rima#e

of Grace6, indicating unmista2ably that the 8orth attempted to put an end to the %outhern

encroachment. ?n the contrary, 0obert elt5s rebellion in the %outh, pressed for the

carrying out of the more radical aspects of the 0eformation, by a wider access to education

for the poor and the freeing of bondmen. The religious development in the %outh are

usually considered as a sign of progress, but the values of 8orthern culture deserve the

same sympathetic treatment as it placed loyalty to 6good lordship6, 6blood6 and nameabove loyalty to a bureaucratic southern-based Crown.

The early years of the seventeenth century brought a re-emergence of the Counter

0eformation in *ermany and a revival of ritualism in England itself, where English culture

began to divide between ritualists and pietists, between nglicans <a nineteenth-century

term= and uritans.

The Gnion of "ales with England during the years &';A-7D led to the opening up of

"ales to direct intervention by the "estminster government that also became more

involved in the affairs of Ireland. The situation underwent a further change when ames VI

of %cotland succeeded to the English Crown Glster, which had been a frontier province

against %cottish intrusions, lost its military ob)ective. The %cottish and English

colonization opened and the ondonderry plantation appeared and the affairs of the three

2ingdoms became close. %ir helim ?58eil led an insurrection against the Glster plantation

that made possible the massacre of rotestant colonists which had a dramatic impact upon

the English and %cottish political scene in &A7&.

The relationship between England and %cotland has followed the same route. The

close political involvement of English in %cotland lasted till ames VI that became the

successor of Elisabeth. The attempt to introduce opery into %cotland developed a

religious crisis that led to the resort of arms. The royal army was defeated and the English

border counties were occupied. The civil war that bro2e out because of the religious

reasons in &A7D involved all the three 2ingdoms. The rise of ?liver Cromwell, the

e#clusion of the 1oderates from arliament and the subse/uent e#ecution of the 2ing too2

place against the bac2ground of the three 2ingdoms. The crisis of &A7+ brings out the



e#tent to which ing Charles saw himself as a 2ing of the three 2ingdoms facing the

problems created by a purely English parliament. The interraction of the three 2ingdoms

was to continue and made possible a peaceful 0estoration.

The English 0evolution6 of this period was in fact an English 0eformation, the

success of which in England and "ales brought about further involvement of Ireland and

%cotland. $y the end of the seventeenth century an English empire had come into e#istence

throughout the $ritish Isles.

The "cts of 5nion became parts of the administrative 0evolution, but their intention

did not necessarily happen on the ground. 1uch changed after the cts of Gnion, but much

also remained unchanged, as the distinctive cultures of 8orth, %outh and "est, embedded

in 2ingship, land-holding and general outloo2, did not appear overnight. The power of

families created at these times was not o be challenged until the nineteenth century after

industrialization had wrought its own revolution.

In "ales, as in Ireland, the 0eformation initially made little impact at the popular

level. "elsh translation of the $ible was produced in &'++ for use in the churches, but in

so dispersed and rural a society, with many local dialects, no single translation sufficed. In

some ways, the Counter 0eformation was more successful. 0ural "ales remained, li2e

rural Ireland and the %cottish !ighlands, very much a traditional society in which local

institutions such as 6wise man of the village, the fair, and the wa2e and 2ingship ties

retained their hold in the face of attempts of 6nglicisation6 by an English oriented gentry

and clergy. It was not until the &+th century that these popular cultures finally collapsed. It

was then that dancing, harp-playing and fiddling began to give way to a new popular

culture based upon hymn singing and the %unday school. The impact of the English food

mar2et was also a powerful instrument of social change. 4armers in the "elsh owlands

responded to the English demand for meat, butter, cheese and wheat. ressures grew for

enclosure on the English model. class of anglicised gentry emerged from the general run

of yeoman farmers. %/uires, together with an English-spea2ing clergy were largely cut off

from their "elsh-spea2ing tenants and labourers. English became the language of law and

politics and polite society. The gentry attended the universities of ?#ford and Cambridge.

In %cotland radical religious and social change came a generation later than in "ales. In

&'A( the 4rench garrison in %cotland returned home and the political connection which had

lin2ed 4rance and %cotland came to an end so the English began its influence. The %cottish



reformation was successful as it was bac2ed by the English arms and money. The $ible

translation of the $ible was an important instrument of nglicisation.

"ithin both !ighlands and owlands, the 0eformation intensified internal differences.

The *aelic-spea2ing west was closer to Glster than to the English-spea2ing owlands.

4eudal culture survived in the !ighlands well into the &+th century long after it had been

destroyed in Ireland. Throughout the early modern period, however, it became

increasingly different to 2eep the history of %cotland distinct from that of a wider English

Empire. The flight of 1ary, Nueen of %cots, to England in &'A+, involved English

politicians more closely in %cottish affairs than ever before. 4or a %cottish 6noble

conformity with England6 was the 2ey consideration and for ames VI, son of 1ary, the

Gnion of the Crowns was the main long-term aim of political strategy, and, when it wasachieved in &Ao; he came to loo2 upon the Episcopal %tate Church of England as the

e#ample to be followed in %cotland. 4rom the mid si#teenth century onwards, %cotland

was drawn increasingly into a $ritannic framewor2.

The history of Ireland during this period has followed its own distinctive path. The

si#teenth century saw the collapse of feudalism. The revolts which too2 place in Ireland

during the si#teenth century aimed to retain an established feudal world against the

unwelcome pressure of a 6modernising6 state. Cultural differences also played their part inleading to charges of atrocity and counter-atrocity. 8evertheless, the success of the English

administration was supported by powerful interests within Ireland, notably the towns.

The social and political revolution was enforced by the English common law. It was

now possible for an Irish parliament to meet and draw upon representatives of shires and

boroughs from all over Ireland. olitical and administrative influence passed into the hands

of those rotestants settlers who had arrived during the Elizabethan reign. 0eligious

criteria were introduced as a condition for inheriting land. The aim of the Crown policy in

the si#teenth century had been to create a class of landlords and tenants holding their

estates under the common law. %ocial unrest too2 place at different moments when the

English monarchy faced severe political crisis in both %cotland and England. They were

accompanied by widespread 2illing and punitive actions.

n English-style arliament was set up and the term Confederation was used for

political reasons. @uring the confederate period the divisions between north ands south re-

emerged accentuated by the plantation of Glster.



The Cromwellian con/uest brought about the downfall of the ?ld English interests in

Ireland. The 8ew English lanters now styled themselves as 6?ld rotestants6 to

distinguish themselves from the 68ew rotestants6 of the Cromwell army.

The historical importance of the 0evolution of &A++ 3 the *lorious 0evolution 3 has

inevitably fluctuated in the process of constant reinterpretation by successive generations.

The acceptance of the parliamentary monarchy was achieved. The appointment of "illiam

of ?range as a 2ing with 1ary as /ueen and the the eighteen century mad its and this way

the . fter &A++ 4rance was to become a permanent rival in the battle for supremacy

overseas. The 8ine 9ear "ar <&A++-&AB:= and the "ar of the %panish succession <&:(D-

&;= involved $ritain in both Continental and colonial warfare and the social burden of debt

grew. The successive governments 2ept borrowing and the function of the ta#es whichwere raised was merely to pay the interest charges on the debt. The achievement s of these

years had a price in the social tensions and political conflicts that made possible the 6%outh

%ea $ubble6, the general financial crash which went with it. The financial interests

represented in the $an2 of England had en)oyed a more than a favourable return on its

investment during the wars. The Torry ministers of Nueen nne had encouraged the

formation of the %outh %ea Company in &:&&. It s management members had a strong

interest in /uic2 profits that depended heavily on the seas which offered the most

promising prospects, deriving from the nglo-%panish treaty that had given the Company a

monopoly of the %panish slave-trade and a valuable share in the %panish merican mar2ets

for European goods. %peculators were encouraged constantly to invest and the constant

inflows of funds )ustified new issues of stoc2. The inevitable was created by corruption and

the naPve investing public when confidence eventually failed and the bubble burst, the

conse/uences were catastrophic, particularly for those who had sold substantial assets in

lands or other forms of property to buy at absurdly inflated prices. The arliament rushed

through a statute severely restricting )oint-stoc2 companies for the future, but more

dramatic action was needed to protect the 8ational @ebt and save the face of the Court.

1oreover, the $ubble was part of an international crisis with matching disasters in aris

and msterdam. *reat scandals disfigured public life at this time. The %outh %ea $ubble is

a mirror of the emerging early prosperity mid-eighteenth century.

$ut the great cry of the period was the Church in @anger6. The general climate of this

period involved an#iety on the part of the Church men. Theological speculations and

polemical debate mar2ed the progress of the early Enlightenment in England. $ut it also



witnessed a considerable e#pansion of arts theatre, with its political role that determined

mounting campaigns of effective criticism ohn *ay5s opera depicted the Court of *eorge

II as a 2ind of thieves5 2itchen> %ir 0obert "alpole was also a satire sub)ect of !enry

4ielding ope5s @unciad, %wift5s Travels, $olimbro2e5s Craftsman all are products of

remar2able polemical social satire. The characteristics of the century literature are the

retreat into classicism, the appeal to country values, the attraction of the rural idyll and the

criticism of the emerging moneyed world. The same satire of the &+ th century society was

the sub)ect of painting.

The industrial revolution locates its birth firmly in the mi-eighteenth century. ow

food prices permitted higher spending on consumer goods and thereby encouraged the

newer industries of the most stri2ing developments was the construction of a nation wideturnpi2e system. $y &::(, when the canals were beginning to offer stiff competition for

freight, the turnpi2e system supplied a genuinely national networ2 of relatively efficient

transport, reducing to little further improvement until &+D(, when 1acadam and Telford

were to achieve further stri2ing savings. $y the &:'(s the full importance of the thirteen

merican colonies began to be appreciated not only because of the competition with

4rance but also because of the implications of domestic terms. Grban improvement

reflected the economic growth and raise of material life the emphasis was on space,

hygiene, and order. 1any of the better preserved *eorgian towns of today owe their

character to this period of urban development. %ewers and water-mains were e#tensively

laid or redesigned> streets and pedestrian wal2s were cobbled and paved. !ouses were

systematically numbered, s/uares cleared, restored and adorned with statuary and flora.

Village architecture change more gradually the parliamentary enclosure acts had an

important economic impact. %ubstantial capitalist farmers were coming to dominate,

becoming a close counterpart in the development of industrial urban society. gainst dearth

and high prices, the bottom social classes, the poor organized combinations to defeat their

master and clubs to provide an element of insurance, but the attempts to enforce the old

apprenticeship laws were ineffective against the )oint efforts of capitalist manufacturers

and uns2illed laborers to cheat them. The friendly clubs intended to provide pensions and

sic2ness benefits. $ut the measures to suppress riots were rarely e#cessive and punishment

was used in an e#emplary way on a small number of those involved. If the poor loo2ed to

the state in vain, they loo2ed to Church with but faint hope. The Church of the eighteenth

century has a poor reputation for what would today be called social policy. Charity is



voluntary and informal. %ubscription and associations built schools, endowed hospitals,

established poor houses, and supervised benefit societies. The parado# is that natural

religion in the early &+th century had produced a growing emphasis on mon2s rather than

faith. Charity was the most obvious e#pression of religious devotion, but rational religion

did not offer much spiritual consolation to those who lac2ed the education on the intellect

to be rational. It was left to that rebellious daughter of the Church, the 1ethodist

movement to offer the poor recompense in the ne#t world for their sufferings in this.

England was the outstanding e#ample in eighteenth century Europe of a plutocratic

society. 1ost important of all perhaps was the emphasis laid on the fle#ible definition of

the English *entleman. nyone, it appeared, who chose to dress li2e a gentleman was

treated li2e one. 1iddle class, even lower-class aped the fashion, manners and opinions of polite society. This, it seems dear, was the authentic mar2 of a society in which all social

values, distinctions and customs gave way before the sovereign power of cash. The sense

of morals was built by e/ualQdemocratic treatment of the people, regardless their ran2,

without remission for noblemen. The system provides a crucial clue to the social stability

of the period.

The national income agricultural contribution went down to a third> land became the

sub)ect of investment, trade, and manufacturing. It was a considerable distance stretched between the mercantile fortunes in the towns ruling the capital, and the small tradesmen or

craftsmen who were the bac2bone of commercial England 3 6the new nation of

shop2eepers6, a phrase often attributed to 8apoleon but in fact used by dam %mith

considerably earlier. 4re/uently self-made and always dependent on aggressive use of their

talents, they were genuine 6capitalists6 in terms of investment of their labour and their

profits in entrepreneurial activity, whether commercial or professional. olitically, their

supremacy was rarely challenged in towns and in rural parishes they more nearly

represented the ruling class, the lofty oligarchs and lordly magnates.

Education was represented by grammar schools that offered scholarly education to

relatively humble children, but the clergy 3 teachers, although they did their best, rarely

surmounted the discouraging effects of low salaries and poor support. The %cottish

contribution to the European achievement of the age in the fields as diverse as moral

philosophy, political economy and medical science was substantial. The disciplined and

innovative instruction offered new foundations li2e !ertford in ?#ford, or the genuine progress of mathematical scholarship at Cambridge. The characteristically middle class



devices of subscription and fees brought into e#istence a great mass of practical,

progressive education designed to fit the sons of middle class to staff the professions and

the world of business. The result was emphatically a middle-class culture, with an

unmista2able pragmatic tone. 6he Societ* of "rts founded in &:'+, was an appropriate

e#pression of the pragmatic spirit. Even the monthly magazines, designed primarily with a

view to entertainment, featured myriad of inventions and speculations of an age deeply

committed to the e#ploration of the physical world.

The &+th century will also be associated with the amusements of a fashionable

oligarchic society, represented by the great spa towns $ath, Tunbridge, @ulwich, Epsom,

%ydenham "ells and others provided attractive resorts for those see2ing country air and

mineral salts. @ancing, playing cards, tea-drin2ing and general social mi#ing werecommonplace by the middle of the century.

The cultural achievements of the mid-century re/uired neither sophistication nor

subtlety. The moralistic interest in the social life ta2es the form of adventure stories of

%molett and 4ielding and later of sentimental movement towards the domestic morality of

the middle class with its stress on family life and its devotion to Calvinistic conceptions of

virtue against heroic, but also on hierarchical notions of personal honour.

The mechanics of politics were all influenced by awareness of large political nation

that led to polemical warfare in the newspapers, prints and pamphlets. The social changes

whish made their mar2 on mid-*eorgian England were profound, e#clusive and of the

utmost conse/uence for the future. The Imperial civil servants planned a new and rosy

future for the transatlantic colonies. The merican colonies would form a vast, loyal

mar2et for $ritish manufacturers, a continuing source of essential row materials and of

revenues for the Treasury. The "est Indies would also ma#imize profits of a flourishing

slave trade, and provide a steady flow of tropical products. The e#otic character of the new

possessions, made the impact of the new empire particularly powerful men returned from

service in the East India Company used their allegedly-gotten wealth to buy their way in

arliament. The 6nabobs6 arrived. merican empire was even greater. The cyclical crisis in

nglo-merican relations began with the %tamp ct and culminated with the rebellion war

in &::'. The outcome was determined in favour of the 8ew Gnited %tates. The thirteen

colonies were lost irretrievably. The mericans defended the rights of the seventeenth

century Englishmen. In due course, the outcome was determined in favour of the Gnited%tates> but almost more important than the overseas conse/uences of the merican war



were the domestic implications. @ifficult imperial /uestions were treated with a mi#ture of

caution and innovations. The Irish had demanded parliamentary independence of

"estminster &:+D and achieved a measure of home rule. In &:B& Canada was given a

settlement which was to endure, albeit uneasily, until +BA:.

The economic problems caused an industrial society, and fundamental /uestions were

raised about government, arliament and the political system generally. n outcry of

reformers rose against the waste and inefficiency of the court system. $ut the mid-&:+(

there was a growing sense of commercial revival and financial recovery prosperity

removed the stimulus to reform, more efficiently than any argument could.

+. $i% eighteenth century , !evolution i"e

Industrialization was gradual and relative in its impact. arl 1ar# understood that

capitalist industrialization failed to improve conditions of the wor2ing class. fter &B&:

%oviet 0ussia tried to prove the planned industrialization a viable alternative that finally

proved finally to be a fiasco. The liberal economists restated the case for industrialization

achieved through the operation of the free mar2et. "hat mar2et $ritain off were /ualitative

changes, notably in patterns of mar2eting, technology and government intervention. 4eudal

title became effective ownership, the 2ey to commercial e#ploitation. Trade more than

industry still characterized the $ritish economy. $esides agriculture, three sectors were

dominant 3 coal, iron and te#tile. The first two provided much of the capitalist e/uipment,

infrastructure and options for future development> but te#tiles made up over 'o percent of

e#port. "ool had always been England5s great speciality, though linen dominant on the

Continent was e#panding in Ireland and %cotland. Cotton rose largely through its

adaptability to machine production and the rapid increase in the supply of raw materials

that slavery in the %outh merica made it possible. The rising demand meant that

resistance to its introduction by the labour force was overcome, ohn ay5s 3shuttle loom

destroyed when he tried to introduced it but ta2en up along with ames !ardgrave5s hand

operated spinning enny and 0ichard r2wright5s water-powered spinning frame. Cotton

technology spread to other te#tiles slowly to linen and wool. $ut it also boosted

engineering and metal construction. ames "att patented his separate condenser steam

engine in &::7. The increasingly sophisticated technology re/uired by the steam engine

enhanced both its further application to locomotives in &+(7, to shipping in &+&D 3 and the

development of the machine 3 tool industry, particularly associated with !enry 1audlayand his invention of the screw-cutting lathe. The creation of a transport infrastructure made



for a golden age of Civil engineering water-carriage, horse-power, and mind-power. The

country5s awful roads were repaired and regulated. 6@ead-water cannels6 using pound

loc2s were being built in Ireland. The water lin2 between 1anchester with a local coalfield

and iverpool showed the importance of water transport for industrial growth. Companies

of gentry, merchants, manufacturers and ban2ers managed to lin2 all the ma)or navigable

rivers.

The 4rench 0evolution was welcome in $ritain. It was celebrated by "ordsworth,

Coleridge, 0obert $urns <%cots "ha5!ae5=, Edmund $ur2e <0eflections on the

0evolution=, Tom aine 6The 0ights of 1an6. $ut the postwar Torry government after

&+&' encountered a new set of literary radicals Coleridge and "ordsworth gathered to the

bosom of the forces of order, were succeeded by $yron and %helley. The new literaryreviews, the rich culture of popular protest, from the new paper of !enry !etherington and

0ichard Carlyle to the bucolic radicalism of "illiam Cobbet and the visuary millenarism

of "illiam $la2e.

The most of the war $ritain avoided European involvement. It was the time when

$ritain gained some other geographical areas India, where she achieved effective

dominance, through %ingapore, the @utch East Indies, and Ceylon and too2 over %outh

frica from the @utch, and established a claim on Egypt. Informally, England secured atrading hegemony over the former %panish colonies of Central and %outh merica.

$efore &:+B $ritain had been part of a continental community. fter &+&' $ritain

remained at a distance from European life. diffuse blend and anarchism to religions

millenarism mar2ed the wor2ing-class movement up to Chartism. Economic and social

theory moved towards the ides of 6Incorporation6. The intellectuals accepted the notion of

political and social evolution. @arwin5s ?rigin of %pecies appeared in &+'B. lthough no

friend to liberalism, Thomas Carlyle5s commendation of self-reliance and the wor2 ethic

gave individuals an almost religious /uality. The middle class read 6industrial novels6,

such as @israeli5s 6%ybil6, an#ious about and intrigued by conditions in the great towns,

trying to personalize their problems and reconcile them with individualist morality.

In &+;D an appalling cholera epidemic, sweeping through Europe from the 1iddle

East probably 2illed over ;(.((( in $ritain. It dramatized the problem of rapid urban

growth. The new industrial towns became smaller, densely pac2ed. tolerable house might

ta2e a /uarter a /uarter of a s2illed man5s wee2ly income and few families were ever in a

position to afford this. If housing was bad, sanitation was worse. The new industrial society



brought into /uestion the organization of education. $ritish industry was still dominated by

te#tiles, and the mar2et for them was both finite and sub)ect to increasing competition from

merica and Europe. The industry was overcapitalized and the adoption of each new

invention meant that the return on capital decreased. 0eal wages increased only slowly but

not sufficiently to counter the decline of the hand wor2 trades and the high marginal costs

of urban life. In the &+7(s events in Ireland seemed to bring the revolution perceptibly

nearer. The potato blight of &+7' destroyed the basis of the country5s population growth

between &+7' and &+'( up to a million died of the conse/uences of malnutrition and

emigrated between &+7' and ''. The Irish had been wounded too deeply. They became

more aggressive by the famine, and would in the future count on the embittered emigrants5

brethren in merica.

The new railway transport system made more money from passengers than freight.

The old long-service army of about 7D per cent Irish, and &7 percent %cots in &+;( 3 poorly

paid and wretchedly accommodated, 2ept the peace in Ireland and the colonies. In many

small campaigns $ritain5s spheres of influence and trade advanced in India and in the

6?pium "ars6 of &+;B(-7D in China, although now on behalf of free trading merchants

rather than the fading Chartered Companies. Early in &+7+, 1ar# and Engels drafted the

Communist 1anifesto6 in ondon, prophesizing on behalf of a small group of *erman

socialists, a European revolution, to be led by the wor2ers of those countries most

advanced towards capitalism. aris rose up against ouis hilippe on 4ebruary, then

$erlin, Vienna and the Italian %tates erupted. $ut $ritain did not follow. There was no

repetition of &:B;. The republican government in aris, who wanted to maintain co-

operation with $ritain, acted firmly against its own radicals, and did not try to e#port

revolution.

The great E#hibition of &+'& celebrated the ascendancy of the Gnited ingdom in the

mar2etplace of the world, although some of the Continental e#hibits, especially those from

the *erman proved to be of higher /uality. The success of the E#hibition astonished

contemporaries. %tatistical analysis made on these occasions, revealed some important

factors for the fist time more people in the mainland lived in towns than in the

countryside, so the growth of the population was due to the movement of the laborers that

left the land for the towns leaving the lands deserted, although agriculture remained the

largest simple industry. The situation led to the 60evolt in the 4ield in &+:(5s that was a

motley affair as out-of-wor2 laborers brought in the troops to harvest to crops. nother fact



revealed by the statistics of the E#hibition 9ear revealed that England and "ales were only

partly church-going. %o England in the &+'(s moved to be increasingly urban, perhaps

increasingly secular and increasingly non-nglican. 8evertheless, a great religious revival

in &+At( added a number of religious activists 0oman Catholic, nonconformists and even

scientists found voices within this broadly based movement for progress.

Economically, 6 free trade2 became a philosophy of political, social and economic

organization. ohn %tuart 1ill5s 6rinciples of olitical Economy6, first published in &+7+,

the handboo2 of 1id Victorian liberalism, put the point in a nutshell the state should stay

aside. The individualist concept of the time gained also from the writings of Charles

@arwin5s ?n the ?rigins of %pecies6 <&+'B=. Evolution was e/ual to progress whether on

the individual, national or global level. The laws of science considered as belonging to the positive concept were supposed to be obeyed by man. Conse/uently, "alter $agehot,

!erbert %pencer were strongly laisse%7faire supporters. Individuals must ac/uire

2nowledge so that moral choices to be based on information, on self awareness and self-

development, a s a result of the liberalism of free spirit in the mid Victorian society.

The &+'(-s saw a spectacular e#pansion of daily and %unday newspapers, especially in

the provinces there were over &((( newspapers in Victorian $ritain @aily Telegraph, The

Times, etc. 4ree trade became also the central orthodo#y of the $ritish politics in theabsence of protective tariffs.

The 4ree trade coincided with an economic boom, closely connected to entrepreneurial

enthusiasm which all classes seem tom have shared. Even the distress caused when the

cotton mills were cut off by the merican Civil "ar was little. The $ritish economy in

Victorian period was e#traordinary comple# in its range of products and activities. It was

strong in basic raw materials of an early coal and iron> an energetic manufacturing sector

that pressed forward with a huge range to the enormous variety of small manufactured

goods which adorned Victorian houses, and, by their e#port, Victorianized the whole

trading world. The intense industrial activity rested on a sound currency and on a ban2ing

system which gained an increasingly important role in the cLeconomy. The growth of towns

intensified. $y &B(& only one fifth of the population of England and "ales lived in what

may be called 6rural areas6,. t the end of the century ondon and eeds also absorbed

large ewish communities. %ome towns were still planned by civically- minded local

councils with par2s, libraries, concert-halls and baths. The growing towns were dominated by the railways which created a nationally integrated economy. They transformed the



centre of towns and made possible for better(off people to live away from the town centre

by providing transport from the suburbs. 4ilth from the trains, chimneys of the factories

and houses, noise from the carts and carriages and horses on the cobblestones were specific

for the Victorian ge. Their dynamism was partly determined by the machinery e#hibited

at the *reat E#hibition. !igh farming-capital spending on fertilizers, drainage, buildings,

farm machinery, roads lin2ing with the new country side 3 led to considerable

modernization. lthough in &+A+m +(M of food consumed in the Gnited ingdom was

still home-produced, the significance of agriculture in the economy declined as towns

grew. ll this left rural society demoralized and neglected> Thomas !ardy5s novels

covered almost e#actly the years of agricultural depression, captured ma)estically the

uncontrollable and distant forces which seemed to determine the fate of the country

inhabitants. The urbanization of the mass of the population and the decline of the rural

areas not surprisingly had profound social conse/uences for all classes of the population.

The standards of living of some members of the laboring population increased /uite fast.

%ome money was available for more than the essentials of food, housing and clothing.

0ows of neat houses, terraced or semi-detached, with small gardens, often both at front and

rear of the house, testified to the successful propertied aspirations of this new societies.

This surplus coincided not with a fall in the birth rate. This falsified the predictions of the

classical political economists from 1althus to 1ar#. The control of family size opened the

way to growing prosperity of the $ritish wor2ing class. The growing prosperity of the

6regular standard earners6 led them to )oin trade unions as a means of safeguarding their

gains of better wages and conditions of wor2. They guarded their privileges and hard-won

ascendancy among their fellow employees given them by their /ualifications through

apprenticeship or their responsibility for s2illed machine wor2ing.

The steady demand for s2illed labour reinforced the influence and status of the craft

unions which e#isted and not only for the purpose of wage negotiations, but also for a

variety of self-help benefits and the trade unions were closely lin2ed to funeral, sic2ness

and unemployment benefits, etc If the trade unions was the institutional e#pression of a

growing wor2ing class, self-awareness, shared leisure activities especially for the male

wage-earner, further encouraged the sense of solidarity. 4ootball games, founded by public

schools and university clubs, but essentially professional by the mid &++(s 3 became the

regular rela#ation of males in industrial towns. The teams encouraged a local patriotism,

enthusiasm and self identification on the part of the followers. $ut the growing popularity



of the socially integrative game of cric2et represents the survival of individuality despite

industrialization and division of labour.

The trip to the seaside, organized individually or by the firm became for many an

annual e#cursion. It became traditional, and e#tended to rambling and cycling trips into the

country side.

The development of a popular press and the rapid nation-wide communication made

possible by the telegraph encouraged the other great wor2ing class recreation betting

especially on horses. @iets improved a little, with meat, mil2, vegetables in addition to

bread, potatoes and beer. The /uality of housing became better houses and people became

cleaner, as soap became cheaper and generally available. $oo2s, photographs, the odd item

of decorative furniture began to adorn the regularly employed wor2man5s home.

0espectability, in the sense of having the use of money to demonstrate some degree of

control of living style, some sense of settled e#istence, some rising of the horizon beyond

the wee2ly wage pac2et, became a goal encouraged by the spread of hire-purchase

companies.

$y the end of the century a far more comple# social pattern had emerged the

professions, businessmen, ban2ers, large shop2eepers represented the lower middle class.

The service sector had become also much greater and more comple# a vast army of white

collar wor2ers managed and several in the retailing, ban2ing, accounting, advertising and

trading sectors. "omen began to e#pect more from life than breeding children and running

the household. They played an important role in charities, churches, local politics, arts,

especially music. %ome attended universities lectures and ta2e e#aminations, but not

degrees, but from the late &+:B women5s colleges were founded at ?#ford and Cambridge.

The professions remained barred to women, but a few succeeded in practicing as doctors.

The $ritish government sought successfully to devolve authority passing the

@ominion of Canada ct in &+A:, and the Commonwealth of ustralia ct in &B((. 9et,

the best 7( years of the century saw the anne#ation of the acific. $ritain was the world5s

trader, with an overwhelming dominance of world shipping. In some areas, $ritish

attempts to trade were supported by arms 3 a notable e#ample being the ?pium wars. $ut

6the chief )ewel in the imperial crown was India. To safeguard it, and the route to that

subcontinent, various anne#ations were made $urma, 1alaya, Egypt and %udan came

under $ritish control> %outh frica became literally $ritain5s chief imperial )ewel after the

"ar against the $oers and the Oulus, when gold was discovered in Transvaal.



Towards the mid &Bth century the overwhelming superiority of the $ritish economy

was much diminished. The G%, *ermany, 4rance and 0ussia were all substantial

industrial powers. $ritain became one among several, no longer the unaccompanied trail-

blazer. In the &++( and &BD( the influence of social @arwinism began to change options

the struggle for the survival of the fittest began to be seen less in terms of individuals and

more in terms of competition between nations. 68ational efficiency6 became the slogan

intended to suggest willingness to use government power to organize and legislate for an

6imperial race6 fit to meet the challenges of the world.

. Conte"porary an% $o%ern i"es History

?n the eve of the 4irst "orld "ar $ritain represented a classical picture of a civilised

liberal democracy on the verge of dissolution, rac2ed by tensions and strains with which its

sanctions and institutions were unable to cope. The miners, railwaymen and transport

wor2ers claimed for their union recognition and a 7+ hour wee2. In Ireland a state of civil

war developed between the rotestant Glster and the Catholic south. India and Egypt were

troubled by nationalist movements. n underlying mood united purpose gripped the $ritish

nation. fter the declaration of "ar, on the 7th ugust, a time of panic settled. ?nly

dramatic measures by the Treasury and the $an2 of England preserved the national

currency and credit. 1anufacturing and commerce tried desperately to ad)ust to thechallenges of war against the bac2ground of war. The broad consensus about the rightness

of the war was not eroded over the terrible years. Eventually, by &B&:, sheer war weariness

was ta2ing its toll, /uite apart from other factors such as the growing militancy from

organized labour and the 1essianic appeal of the $olshevi2 revolution in 0ussia.

The broad mass of the population retained its faith that war was )ust and necessary, and that

it must be the fought until the total surrender of the *erman enemy, whatever the cost.

Voluntary recruitment proved more successful than the compulsory method of conscription

thereafter.

The psychological and moral impact of those appealing years san2 deep into the memory

and the outloo2 of the $ritish people. They profoundly influenced the literary sensibilities

of a whole generation.

ma)or factor in the wide spread popularity of the war 3 and also in its subse/uent bitter

unpopularity 3 was the involvement of the whole population and the entire social and

economic fabric in total war. It brought about a massive industrial and social



transformation, a collectivist control. The original model was conceived by the 1inistry of

1unitions that became the engine of a massive central machine which invigorated the

industrial structure through its 6men of push and go6. It achieved a huge impact as well on

much different areas as social welfare, housing policy and the status of women. The state

undertoo2 the control over railways, merchant and shipping and the traditional system of

industrial relations was wrenched into totally new patterns. The war ensured a continuing

corporate status for the unions 3 and also for employers, combined in the 4ederation of

$ritish Industry. The appearance of powerful businessmen in 2ey departments of central

government represented the transformation in the relationship of industrial and political

leadership. Edward VII5s iberal England was being turned into a corporate state, almost

what a later generation would term 2Great Britain Limited2

eftwing opponents of the war noticed that the imperatives of the war were achieved far

more for social reform than had all the campaigns of the trade unions and of progressive

humanitarians in half a century past. 4resh layers were being added to the technocratic

professional, and civil service elite that governed $ritain in years of peace. The

administrative and managerial class e#panded massively. %ocial reformers such as "illiam

$everidge or %eebohm 0owntree, even the socialist $eatrice "ebb became influential

wages went up> wor2ing conditions improved. Education policy changed and elementary

education was made free and opportunities were sought from the elementary to the

secondary and higher levels of education.

*overnmental in/uiries opened up new vistas for state housing schemes, an area almost

neglected before &B&7. !undreds of thousands of wor2ing class dwellings were subsidized

by local authorities. ublic health became a public concern too as medical arrangements,

better conditions for children and old people and nursing mothers and the national

insurance system were improved.

The war was also a time of women emancipation. 8urse Edith Cavell, one of the thousands

of women that served at the front, often in medical field hospitals, that was martyred by the

*ermans for assisting in the escape of $ritish and 4rench prisoners of war in $elgium,

contributed to the public esteem of women in general. "omen found vast new

opportunities in clerical, administrative wor2, in many other unfamiliar tas2s previously

reserved for men only. The very dissolution wrought by total war e#erted powerful

pressures in eroding the se# barriers which had restricted women over the decades.



E#ternally, the war years encouraged further changes. It was, in all senses, a profoundly

imperial war, fought for the empire as well as for 2ing and country. 1uch was owed to the

military and other assistance from ustralia 8ew Oeeland, Canada, %outh frica and India.

nzac @ay <with memories of %uvla $ay, *allipoli= became a tragic, symbolic event in the

ustralian calendar. Imperial Cabinet of rime 1inisters was convened in &B&: to assist

the Cabinet of the mother country. In commerce, imperial preference was becoming a

reality. The Imperial mysti/ue was a powerful one at this time.

The main architect of the day, Edwin eytens, inspired by "illiam 1orris and !erbert

$a2er turned their talents to pomp and circumstance by rebuilding the city of @elhi in

order to symbolise the classical authority. The imperial idea was ta2en further than ever

before by the secret treaties that ensured $ritain being left with an imperial domain largerthan ever after the war, with vast new territories in the 1iddle East and up to the ersian

*ulf. 9et, in reality it was all becoming increasingly impractical to maintain. ong before

&B&7, the financial and military constraints upon an effective imperial policy were

becoming clear, especially in India with its growing Congress movement. 8ew and

increasingly effective nationalist upraised against the $ritish rule. $y mid &B&+, in Ireland

%inn 4ein partisans and their republican creed had won over almost all the twenty-si#

southern Irish counties. $y the end of the war, southern Ireland was virtually under martial

law, resistant to conscription, in a state of near rebellion against the Crown and the

rotestant ascendancy. Indians and Egyptians were li2ely to pay careful heed. The war left

a legacy of a more isolated $ritain, whose imperial role was already being swamped by

wider transformations in the post-war world.

The continuity between war and peace was confirmed by loyd *eorge5s overwhelming

electoral triumph at the elections of @ecember &B&+> he was acclaimed, almost universally,

as 6the man who won the war6, as the most dominant political leader since Cromwell. In

Ireland, %inn 4ein captured :; seats out of +& in the south is representatives withdrew

from "estminster and set up their own unofficial parliament or @ail in @ublin.

%ocio-economic normality was being rapidly restored. 1any of the war time controls and

the state collectivism disappeared, ma)or industries were returned to private hands.

financial policy to entail a deflationary approach was adopted, to ensure the return to the

gold standard and to contract the note issue e#panded so rapidly during the war. The rime

1inister, loyd *eorge was seen as a social reformer an#ious to build 6a land fit for



heroes6. It was conceived a programme to e#tend health and spread universal

unemployment insurance, and a programme for subsidized houses.

$ut soon it became clear that life was not to be restored to the same patterns. The loss of

the foreign mar2ets and the sale of overseas investments determined disruptive economic

problems.

4rom anuary &BDD an Irish 4ree %tate, consisting of the twenty-si# Catholic counties of

southern Ireland was created with )ust the si# rotestant counties of Glster in the north-east

left within the Gnited ingdom. The government used tough methods, including

emergency powers and the use of troops as stri2e brea2ers in dealing with national stri2es

by miners, railway men and many other wor2ers <including police= in &B&B-D&. Thereafter

the government failed to prevent massive unemployment from growing up and casting

blight over the older industrial areas. The peace settlement was increasingly unpopular. The

economist .1. eyness, in his boo2 !conomic Conse8uences of 4eace became rapidly a

best seller on both sides of the tlantic as it showed conclusively that the reparations

imposed on *ermany would lead to its financial ruin and thereby to the wea2ening of

European economy. $ritain refused any longer to act as the 6police man of the world6. The

empire might be larger than ever, but it must be accompanied by a withdrawal from

commitments in Europe. There was a constant flu# and upheaval in other spheres of publiclife as well.

In "ales and %cotland there were small movements of intellectuals, which suggested that

the very unity of the 2ingdom could itself be threatened. The two nationalist parties were

formed on the Irish model, laid Cymru in "ales in &BD' and the 8ational arty of

%cotland in &BD+.

In the later twenties, the land settled down into a pattern that endured until &B7(s. The

population continued to grow, if more slowly, but within it there were deep and growing

contrasts, as younger writers, such *eorge ?rwell were later to emphasize. There were

many housing developments in the form of suburban middle class estates. larger

proportion of the population emerged from the war with middle-class aspirations 3 home

ownership> a /uit family environment> more leisure pursuits <that were over a million cars

in private hands by &B;( of which the most celebrated was the 6$aby ustin6=> domestic

comforts and mechanical aids such a !oovers. 4or )unior managers, civil servants,

schoolteachers, s2illed wor2ers and others, members of white collar administrative and

professional groups that had e#panded so dramatically between &++( and &B&+, the



variety of political nostrums were suggested, from the collectivism of the %ocialist

eague and later the eft $oo2 Club, to the pure sectarianism of the tiny Communist arty

who claimed to see the future wor2ing in %oviet Gnion. ?n the radical rights, %ir ?swald

1osley tried to create a $ritish variant of 4ascism with a mi#ture of corporate planning

and anti-%emitism. 1eanwhile the veteran socialist writers, $ernard %haw and !. *. "ells

in their different ways promoted the cause of a planned antiseptic scientific Gtopia. fter a

long political turmoil, Chamberlain was the rime 1inister that led the recovery of the

economy on the earlier part of the decade with much investment in housing and in

consumer durables, and new affluence for advanced industrial zones. Emigration from

older regions such as %outh "ales, @urham Cumberland and %cotland was balanced by

new growth in the suburbs and centres of light industries. There were benefits for farmers

in the form of mil2 and other mar2eting schemes and production /uotas, and advantages

for urban and suburban residents such as improved transportation <the ondon Tube=,

e#tended gas and electricity services and cheap housing. In &B;D a Trade Conference held

in ?ttawa settled the new principles of a commercial system of tariffs and imperial

preferences due to last until the &B:(s.

The thirties were a time of very low inflation, cheap private housing and a lot of growing

choice for consumers. The motor car industries, electrical, chemical and te#tile concerns

continued to thrive. n e#pansion of the service and professional sectors of the white-

collar population was noticed> in the growing suburban communities there appeared smart

shopping precincts, many new cinemas and football grounds. The semi-detached middle

class housing stretched along the arterial roads and bit deep in the surrounding countryside,

unhampered by environmental control designed to preserve the 6green belts6 $ritain

displayed in the thirties a surprising degree of stability in a European continent which saw

totalitarianism engulf *ermany, Italy and ustria and the 4rench and %panish republics

cast into disarray. The social and cultural hierarchy changed very little. The monarchy

retained its esteem by responding subtly to marginal changes in the outloo2 of the mass

democracy

$ritain, in the thirties, showed being a land at peace with itself. $ut the mood began to

change abruptly in &B;: through an e#ternal impact of foreign affairs. The public mood in

the early thirties remained a passive one, even after the advent of !itler in *ermany in

anuary &B;;. !iller marched into the 0hineland in early &B;A, in direct contravention of

the Versailles settlement. $ut only a few voices, li2e the isolated and unpopular "inston



Churchill called for a military response. Earlier, the $ritish public had generally endorsed

the appeasement policy of the 4oreign ?ffice following the Italian invasion of byssinia-

elected 0epublican government was sub)ected to invasion by a right wing 8ationalist force

led by *eneral 4ranco, with later armed assistance from Italy and *ermany, the $ritish

government adhered rapidly to 6non-intervention6, even if this meant the eventual downfall

of democracy in %pain.

t various levels, however, the public mood suddenly changes. Even the government

began to turn its mind to the need to overhaul the national defenses, especially in the air.

new fighter-based air force was in the ma2ing, bac2ed up by the latest technology invested

in 6radar5 and other anti-craft and defense systems. Through men li2e Tizard and

indemann, the voice of scientific innovation was heard in the corridors of power. $y &B;:the rearmament programme was visibly under way. ewish refugees from *ermany

brought the reality of !itler5s regime and of anti-%emitism home to $ritish opinion. Even

on the abour left, trade union leaders turned vigorously against neo-pacifist abour

politicians who denied armed assistance to trade union and labour groups crushed in

4ascist *ermany and ustria.

The *erman advance in &B;+, the seizure of ustria and the subse/uent threat to

Czechoslova2ia, ostensibly on the %udeten *ermans in the "estern fringe of $ohemia, produced a national crisis of conscience. Chamberlain responded with managerial

decisiveness. 0earmament was stepped up and new negotiations began with the

engineering trade unions to try to build up munitions and aircraft. "hen !itler too2 the

fateful step of invading oland in %eptember, &B;B, Chamberlain announced in a broadcast

the ne#t day that $ritain had declared war to *ermany. "hen war bro2e out in &B;B there

was a unanimity that pervaded all regions and classes.

s in &B&7 the war was represented publicly as a crusade on behalf of oppressed

nationalities and persecuted races. The broad imperatives survived to create a new

consensus. s twenty years earlier, $ritain regained its sense of unity and national purpose

amidst the challenge and turmoil of total war.

@uring the so called 6 phon* war 6 period down to pril &B7(, the fighting seemed

remote, almost academic. Then, in pril the cold war hotted up. The *erman invaded

8orway, scattering before them the $ritish naval and military forces at 8arvi2. %oon

afterwards, the 8etherlands and $elgium were overrun and the 4rench army bro2e up in



disorderly retreat. The security of the $ritish Isles themselves was now under clear and

pressing threat.

"inston Churchill emerged as a wartime rime 1inister, with abour and iberals both

)oining the government. The e#tent to which $ritain was prepared to defend itself in

military reserves, the 6home #uard 6 of civilians was later to be effectively parodied as a

6dad9s arm*56 of amateurs muddling through with good humour. $ut the real battle lay in

the air, where the reserves of %pitfire and !urricane fighter aircraft were rapidly built up.

4rom mid ugust onwards the *erman uftwaffe launched wave after wave of blitz

attac2s, first on $ritish airfields and aircraft factories, later on ondon and other ports and

ma)or cities. lmost miraculously civilian morale and national defenses stood firm against

terrifying bombardments. The later course of the war on land, and more especially on seaand in air, had a ma)or long-term effect on the international and imperial status of *reat

$ritain. It had begun to being a traditional European conflict to preserve nation al security

and the balance of power in the "est. This aspect of the war reached a successful outcome

by the summer of &B7&, with the frustration of *erman threats to invade $ritain.

!owever, the war demonstrated wider, imperial themes. 4rom being initially a conflict to

preserve "estern and Central Europe from the aggressive menace of *erman 4ascism, the

war rapidly turned into a broader effort to sustain the Commonwealth and empire as theyhad endured over the decades. The white dominions 3 ustralia, 8ew Oeeland, Canada and

far more hesitantly 3 %outh frica 3 lent immediate support in term of raw materials and

armed naval and other assistance.

The entry of the %oviet Gnion into the war in une &B7& and even more that of the Gnited

%tates in @ecember &B7&, following the apanese assault on the G% fleet at earl !arbor,

ensured that the war remained a worldwide one, fought in every continent and every ocean,

and that the cosmic structure of the $ritish Empire would come under acute threat.

In the 4ar East, also, the war involved desperate efforts to shore up the empire at its base.

The invasion of the apanese through China into Indo China and the @utch East Indies,

including the capture of all the merican bases in the hilippines, led Churchill to place

the 4ar East, with the approach to the Indian subcontinent, even higher than the 1iddle

East in the military priorities.

The rapid apanese advance through 1alaya and the surrender of the $ritish army in

4ebruary &B7D, represented the landmar2 in the fall of the empire. !enceforth, ustralia



and 8ew Oeeland were to loo2 to the G% form protection in the acific rather than to the

imperial mother country. $y late &B77 the $ritish position in eastern sia and the acific,

even with the loss of 1alaya, %ingapore and !ong ong was still a powerful one, even if

dependent on merican land and naval assistance.

t last in une &B77, with the naval invasion of 4rance from the 8ormandy beach-head by

llied forces under the command of Eisenhower R 1ontgomery, the war again assumed a

European aspect. In the end it was a rapid and triumphant campaign. It was the general

1ontgomery who formally received the unconditional surrender of the *erman forces at

unenburg !eath on 1ay B, &B7'.

!itler himself had committed suicide a few days earlier. apan also surrendered on ugust

&' after two atomic bombs had wrought huge devastation at !iroshima and 8agasa2i,

2illing over &(,((( people.

The most satisfying fact of all was that casualties were so much lighter in the years of the

%econd "orld "ar, than in the four years of slogging trench warfare in &B&7-&B&+. This

time a total of D:(,((( servicemen were lost in si# years as well as over A(,((( civilians

2illed on *erman air raids. The campaign had been more peripheral, more episodic and in

the end, far more effectively conducted on a technical basis.

The mericans were concerned at wartime conferences and at the otsdam peace

conference of uly ugust &B7', to speed up the process of decolonization. Churchill was

led to observe an#iously that he had not become the ing5s minister, or fought a bloody

war for si# years, in order to achieve the dissolution of the $ritish Empire. $ut already his

outloo2 was being overta2en by events.

This war clearly e#pressed a profound spirit of egalitarianism of a type previously

un2nown in $ritish history at any period. *eorge ?rwell felt that a social revolution was

ta2ing place. The ration boo2s, gas mas2s, identity cards and other wartime afflicted the

people e/ually R implied a mood of 6fair shares6. %o did the communal sufferings during

the blitz. notable impact was achieved by the evacuees, the school children removed

from ondon, $irmingham, iverpool and other cities to ta2e refuge in rural communities

in England and "ales. arge sections of the nation got to 2now each other. The medical

and food supplies for the evacuated children of the urban slums meant a great improvement

in their physical and mental well-being. 4or their patients, war miraculously meant that full

employment was restored, after the terrible decay of the thirties. 1ood of e/uality of



sacrifice, novel /uestions began to be as2ed about public policy. scheme of

comprehensive social security financed from central ta#ation, including maternity benefits

and child allowances, universal health and unemployment insurance, old age pension and

death benefits. It was the time of the provision from the 6cradle to the grave6.

In &B7', it began a long overdue process of reversing the economic decline by diversifying

and modernizing the economic infrastructure. It was also outlined a non dynamic approach

to town planning with 6green belt6 provisions around ma)or conurbations, new controls

over land use and 6new towns6 to cater for the oversight of older cities.

The domestic budgetary policies and the e#ternal financial arrangements, including the

attempt to revitalize international trade and currency was made through the $reton "oods

agreement, the nationalization of ma)or industries and the $an2 of England, the levy on

inherited capital> the salaried state directed medical profession was now proposed by both

conservative and liberal circles.

chimed feeling, with a noticeable mood of political radicalism, made $ritain move more

rapidly to the left than in any other period of history. $eyond the confines of "estminster

and "hitehall, it was clear that the public was becoming more radical. There was a

widespread public enthusiasm for the 0ed rmy, very popular after %talingrad and the

advance against $erlin. Even in the armed forces, so it was murmured, left wing or novel

ideas were being bandied about in current affairs groups and discussion circles.

0econstruction then was a far more coherent and deep rooted concept as the war came to

its close.

The abour *overnment of &B7'-'&, launched a new 2ind of consensus, a social

democracy, based in a mi#ed economy, and had a welfare state which too2 $ritain well

enough through the difficult post war transition and endured in its essence for another

generation or more.

1a)or industries and institutions were brought into public ownership 3 coal, railway, road

transport, civil aviation, gas, electricity, cable and wireless, the $an2 of England. ?ver D(

percent of the nation5s industry was ta2en into the 6public sector6. Corporate private

capitalists were replaced by boards of corporate public bureaucrats. The health service was

implemented as a salaried system by which the doctors were made state employees and the

sale of the private practices was abolished. 8otable measures included the national



insurance system introduced in &B7A that meant the new drive for late subsidized 6council6

houses, old age pensions, the raising of the school leaving age and child allowances.

The underlying principles of publicly-supported, comprehensive welfare state survived

largely unscathed.

$ritain faced a huge postwar debt, which led to severe imbalance of trade, devaluation of

the sterling against the dollar, difficulties in the balance of payments, rationing of food,

clothing, petrol and many domestic commodities. The trade unions were generally

permitted to develop their freedoms and collective bargaining powers.

The stability of the domestic scene was much assisted by the general /uietude of e#ternal

policy. In &B7', $ritain was still a great power, one of the 6$ig Three6 at the international

peace conferences. This aspect was preserved up to 1oscow Test $an Treaty of &BA;.

!owever, international position was /ualified by the gradual but necessary retreat from

empire that the post war period witnessed.

The granting of self-government to India, a2istan, $urma and Ceylon <%ri an2a= by the

ttlee government was the transfer of power. The process of decolonization was concluded

in the fifties, when the territories in "est and East frica, enya R Cyprus received their

independence. In %outhern frica, the eventual brea2up of the Central frican 4ederationin &BA;, gave independence for 8orthern 0hodesia, <Oambia=, and 8yasaland <1alawi=

also. scattered handful of territories 3 $ritish !onduras, 4al2land Islands, *ibraltar,

!ong ong, and den, 4i)i were still under $ritish control in the 5A(s, but the Empire day

disappeared from the calendar and the 2ing ceased to be an European of India. n

merican politician, @aniel 1oynihan could write about the new prestige of $ritain for

having liberated so large a proportion of the world5s population without the bitterness.

4rom &B7B the Gnited %tates of merica and $ritain were strategically and geopoliticallyin 8T?. nother organization %ET?, followed, for %outh-East sia followed on

shortly. The $ritish prided themselves that this meant an e/ual 6special relationship6

between the English spea2ing peoples.

8earer homes there were attempts from &B7: onwards to form a political and economic

union of "estern Europe. The $ritish governments were suspicious, if not openly hostile>

as they felt that few natural ties lin2 the nations across the Channel. The first attempt to

)oin the Common 1ar2et in &BA; was rebuffed by the resident of 4rance. Charles de

*aulle. The Euro enthusiasm was oriented clearly against the tide of public opinions.



In spite of the fact that the self-contained $ritish society was wor2ed by a slow rate of

growth and falling productivity and the class division and ine/ualities prevented the

modernizing of a 6stagnant society6, it was to be noticed that homes became better

furnished, an increasing number of families had their own cars and could also afford a

decent holiday on the sunny 1editerranean coast.

The young wor2ing class changed their lifestyle and the pop culture was e#pansive. ?ther

social changes were assisted by liberal-oriented politicians. %e#ual offences, homose#ual

and otherwise, were less liable to the rigours of the law, and abortion along with the pills

and other easy obtainable contraception offered scope for endless se#ual indulgence> there

were far more divorces and one-part families.

s from the education point of view, many new universities sprang up, while older

universities were much e#panded, that diluted the /uality of the educational process, as

some voices complained.

%tudent rebellions and protests, familiar in 4rance or in merica, against nuclear

disarmament and the merican war in Vietnam, briefly fared up in $ritish campuses. The

young were finding the values of consumerism and conformism unappealing in a world

whose ecology was being disturbed or whose very e#istence was threatened by terrible

weapons. 9oung people in "ales or %cotland generated a tide of nationalist protests as they

did not en)oy fully the economic growth of the '(s. The %cottish nationalists complained

that the very title of Elizabeth II was a misnomer in their country, and in "ales there was

the added theme of an ancient language and culture threatened with e#tinction in the

une/ual battle against 6anglicized6 mass culture.

The artificial %tate 2ept in being by the control of the rotestant ma)ority, 8orthern Ireland,

was in disarray, led to powerful civil rights movement on behalf of the 0oman Catholic

minority.

$y the &B:(5s, it was clear that the economic problems of $ritain was having were having

far more general conse/uences, as its economic decline continued in comparison with

almost all other "estern European countries. Gnions became more and more assertive in

their 6right-to-wor26 demonstrations, in protests against cuts in public spending or the high

rate of unemployment. The religious animosities between rotestants and 0oman Catholics

in Ireland were aggravated by the most acute rate of unemployment. The endemic violence

stretched across the sea in the form of terrifying bomb attac2s on English cities, and even



assassinations of politicians. 1ore alarming were the troubles afflicting the blac2

communities living in poor ghettos of large cities.

lthough after much diplomatic infighting, $ritain entered the European Common 1ar2et

in &B:;. Gni/ue referendum in &B:' saw a large ma)ority recording its support for $ritish

membership, the $ritish attitude. Towards the Common 1ar2et continued to be governed

by hostility.

colourful indication of at least a partial retreat from isolationism was the building of a

high-speed rail tunnel under the English Channel to lin2 $ritain and 4rance, a tunnel that

became operational in &BB;.

The Commonwealth ties were becoming more and more intangible too. The agreement

with China by which the $ritish would withdraw from the !ong-ong within + years,

confirmed the irreversible retreat from the Empire.

%uddenly, in the +(s an important change in the economic landscape occurred. The balance

of payments suddenly moved into a large and continuing surplus. The technological

wonders of oil, electronics, aerospace of Concorde, the high-speed train and the

computerized microchip age, suggested that the native reserves of innovation and scientific

ingenuity had not run dry. The $ritish economy began to e#pand R reached a rate of 7

percent growth in early &B+:.

notable event was the so called 6$ig $ang6 in the City of ondon <D: ?ctober &B+A=

which replaced the age old spectacle of )obbers milling on the %toc2 E#change floor with

an almost invisible, highly sophisticated computer-based networ2 for dealers.

This was the sign of the new internationalism of the capital mar2et. ife suddenly appeared

easier after the crisis of the seventies and early eighties home ownership contributed to the

welfare of the population. Conversely, the trade unions appeared to be declining in publicesteem and even more in membership.

The e#perimentalism of the 6permissive6 years of the si#ties was being followed by a new

passion for traditional standards and values, commitment to wor2, to more conventional

forms of se#ual e#perience, to family life, to patriotism.

In the &BB(s, it remained a relatively neighborly society. $rits e#pressed constantly a deep

sense of their history. Even in the turbulence of the later twentieth century, an awareness of

the past came.



II. British Art

1. Architecture

1.1. 0or"an Perio%

"hen studying architecture one can understand the characteristics of different historical

periods social and political environment 3 structure of social layers and their aspiration to

royal or political favour or simply assertion of their wealth - , spiritual aspirations of the

community - philosophy and religion, the power of clergy.

The history of architecture in England starts with the 8orman ?ccupation in &oAA. The

8ormans spent their first decade in England securing their defensive needs, as well as

reforming the church. 8ew military settlements, new ma)or cathedrals, and monastic

foundations were built. These building were made to last and were often e#tremely

substantial with walls of cut-stone bloc2s filled with rubble over one metre thic2. The

most famous are the "hite Tower of ondon and 0ochester and @over castles, placed

strategically to guard against invasion or civil unrest. %ome of them may have been

constructed on the sites of earlier wooden fortification built by the %a#ons, such as of

eversey as depicted on the $ayeu# Tapestry.

8orman 2eeps were of three basic types rectangular, circular shell <as at "indsor= or

angular as at ?rtford, %uffol2. The "hite Tower retains its halls and impressive chapel.

The 8orman contribution to church building was also important. The buildings leave

the impression that they were built to cast for all time. The nave of @urham cathedral is

an e#ample of massivity and austerity and austerity. i2e many 8orman churches, its

e#ternal walls are divided by strip buttresses and pierced by small semi circular arched

windows. Entry to the nave is through a deeply recessed arched doorway on the 8orth

side. The interior is divided into bays by piers with vertical shafts rising from the

pavement to the springing of the vault. Each bay is divided into three stages, common to

all 8orman greater churches and evolved from umieges and the church of Caen.

lthough the style appears austere by later standards, the high /uality of decoration and

incised carving softens it. opular decoration includes chevron, bea2-head, cable and

billet. Capitals deferred also in their deep incision with foliated patterns or strange

creatures which were a mi#ture of birds, animal and monster. %ome of them, as in the

crypt at Canterbury Cathedral, display musical instruments. opular form of wall

decoration was blind arcading of either continuous simple arches or intersecting arches.



4ew e#amples of domestic architecture from this period survived, since most houses

must have been of timber in-filled with wattle and mud, and straw daub. %tone was

e#pensive and used only by rich merchants, particularly the ewish community. There

are records of stone houses in ondon, "inchester, Canterbury, 8orwich, incoln and

%outhampton.

1.2. othic

The first features of *othic style are to be seen at @urham Cathedral 3 pointed arches,

ribbed vaults and flying buttressing. The fully developed style reduced these elements to

structure-bearing devices, so that the walls could be pierced by openings of ever-

increasing proportions. The process began in &77(s with the bbey of %t. @enis, near

aris, where almost all the 4rench 2ings were buried, and reached maturity in thecathedral of 8otre @ame, in aris, in about &D((.

In %eptember &&:7 the /uire of Canterbury Cathedral was the destroyed by fire, that was

considered as a message from *od to build a new church worthy of the shrine of

$ec2et. The new building of the /uire that was completed in &&B( showed lightness,

which was new.

There are numerous cathedrals witnessing the high standards of early medieval $ritish

*othic style-craftsmanship. 1ost of them were preserved at the time of 0eform to

become seats of the dioceses of the nglican Church.

The only ma)or medieval cathedral to be destroyed was %t. aul5s in ondon by the fire

of &AAA. The earliest pure *othic cathedrals were in "ales and %alisbury> the latter may

be ta2en as an e#ample of the more advanced Early English style 2nown as

#eometrical. The chapter house of the cathedral, built for the $enedictine mon2

community in about &D'; beautifully e#emplifies the development of large windows

filled with pointed arches. The chapter house is octagonal with a central column of

clustered shafts supporting the ribbed vault. lso, little is made of the portals which lac2

the magnificent carved gables, )ambs and tympana of the 4rench cathedrals.

Thousands of parish churches survived with a substantial structure dating bac2 before

the 0eformation, but no two are the same although there are regional features in

planning and ornament. 4or instance, spires abound in 8orth !ampshire and

incolnshire, but are rare in %omerset and @evon. It is no coincidence that the largest



parish churches are in !ull the great 9armouth and $oston ports of 4landers and the

$altic.

"ith the coming of the Early English period chancels were often rebuilt to provide

more space and light. This 6decorated 6 period <&;D(-&'((= was of embellishment.

erhaps the two most notable churches belonging to it are those at !ec2ington -

incolnshire and addington - 9or2shire. $oth have tall towers with spires from behind

a parapet and flan2ed at each corner by tall pinnacles. The corners of the spire display

sprouting croc2ets li2e leaves and the surfaces are pierced at intervals by lucarnes-

gabled openings, which allow air to circulate inside the spire.

The perpendicular *othic style is ade/uately represented in parish churches> more so at

the second half of the fifteenth century, was a period of rebuilding and enlargement. The

entrances to the churches were now open through ma)estic south porches. These would

be flan2ed by buttresses and, if part of a ma)or town church, it might have an upper

storey for the use as a grammar school room or place for parish meetings. Today it is

hard to glimpse the original colour and atmosphere of a pre-0eformation church.

?riginally, the walls would have been painted with biblical themes and the chancel arch

adorned with a large )udgement painting. Tombs reflect local patronage and wealth and

might ta2e the form of recumbent effigies of the deceased. 4or the nobility, coat of armsmight also be displayed in a richly decorate canopy or on the tomb chest itself. In the

fifteenth century merchants were increasingly represented dressed in fur-edged gowns

with feet resting on a lamb.

4ortunately churches did not suffer the destructive fate of monasteries, although an ct

of &'7B allowing the destruction of chantries and rood screens was a grievous blow to

the s2ills of the medieval sculptors, wood carver and painter. It was a period of neglect

leading to the restoration needed period in the nineteenth century.

1.#. he Castle an% $e%ieval $anor1 House

$y the late thirteen century there was an increasing wish for more within the castle

comple# of inner and outer bailey, the 2eep often proving cramped. This led to the building

of a detached hall and chapel within the inner compound 2nown as the bailey. "indows

were now much larger than those built by the 8ormans and would follow the bar-tracery

geometrical-patterned fashion of churches. %ome halls, such as those at ?a2ham and



"inchester, were aisled and could accommodate many guests at high table and in the body

of the hall.

The greatest castle-building campaign in $ritain was that of Edward I between about &D+(-

&;(( to guard the coastline of "ales and the "elsh marches or English border counties.

These introduced a new form of plans, in which the 2eep was dispensed with domestic

apartments within high curtain walls. lthough the great age of castle building could be

said to have ended with the death of Edward the Ist, in &;(:, many castles will undergo

e#tensive rebuilding or addition. n e#ample is the Tower of ondon where the seemingly

massive 8orman "hite Tower became immersed within a comple# series of concentric

walls guarded every few yards by cylindrical or polygonal mural towers. The medieval

castle had become so impregnable that it largely outlined its purpose.

There were still a few new castles built in the fourteenth century, especially in the %cottish

border county, such as Etal <&;7(=, a 2eep and bailey type.

&The fortified manor house had been introduced, allowing for a far greater degree of

comfort while at the same time providing limited protection from unrest, but it gave

immense political and social status for those living inside. n e#cellent e#ample is the case

of %ir ohn oultney, a merchant of ondon and financial supporter of the wars of Edward

III who was granted the manor of enshurst in ent and a licence in &;7&. The dominant

surviving feature is the Great )all , entered through a porch. t the entrance a lower end of

the hall was a vestibule divided by a screen from the body of the hall that provided a

barrier against the smell from the 2itchen. $ehind the upper end of the hall, where a high

table raised on steps was placed, was a parlor with solar and domestic apartments above.

The solar from the old 4rench solar, an upstairs room lit by the sun, was the private living

and sleeping room of the household. i2e parish churches, manor houses e#hibit fine

craftsmanship in the variety of timber roofs spanning halls and the carving of screen and

paneling.

fter the fire in &&+B 0ichard I issued buildin# re#ulations to the citi%ens of London

re/uiring the building of stone party walls of at least three feet in thic2ness. !owever, it

was not until the *reat 4ire of &AAA that rules against building in wood were fully

enforced. "here medieval timber town houses survived unaltered, as in Canterbury or

9or2, there are of fifteenth century and are on deep rectangular plots with a narrow

frontage to the street. They were built up to two or more storeys, the top being within

& 1anoir dwelling in 4rench



the gable on the roof. The ground hall of a town house might serve as a shop with

timber panel opening to the street to display wares for sale. door might lead directly

into the front chamber or a passage through to a yard behind which might have been

used to 2eep animals or fowls. The upper stages were )ettied on immensely thic2 )oists,

which ran through the house and acted as a support for the floorboards on each chamber.

!eavy furniture was placed against the outer walls or at points where the )oints were

supported by a frame below. "indows might also pro)ect the sill supported by brac2ets.

The party wall of stone or bric2 would have a fireplace on each floor and a flue to the

chimneystac2 above the level of the roof ridge. Thatch was widespread as a roof

covering until at least the thirteenth century when the use of tile became more

widespread, especially in towns. The term half7timbered is very apt as there were

numerous struts placed within the area of the structural timbers. The timbers were held

together by wooden nails or pegs or by mortise and tenon )oints. There are many

regional variations. In some timbers were filled with rectangular panels intersected by a

diagonal strut or wind brace or vertical studs placed a few inches apart hence, the term

2close studdin# 6. In the wooded areas of ent, Cheshire the timber patterns could be

e#tremely comple# with /uatre foil patterns set off against white painted plaster.

In the country, houses from the simplest timber framed chuc2 cottage to the yeoman5s

hall house. The hall house was originally open in the middle from the ground floor to

the roof as the upper end was a parlor, with a )ettied chamber above, and, at the opposite

end, 2itchen, pantry and larder with a chamber above. s this type of house was refined,

so a stone or bric2 chimney might be introduced through the end walls or at the side.

%olid bric2 was increasingly used for the lower stages of the side chambers towards the

end of the period, and windows filled with glass increased in size.

1.&. u%or Architecture

The transition from the *othic to the classical style was much slower and the

appearance of most towns outside ondon would have shown little evidence of the

0enaissance.

The religious troubles of 0eformation and subse/uent suspicion about the 0oman

Catholic continent discouraged much contrast with the classical south. It was in the field

of literature and theatre that the classical would have the greatest impact on the general

public. $oth 1arlowe and %ha2espeare wrote plays based on classical history and



mythology. There was no natural school of painting, most artists at this time were

4lemish of *erman by birth, and their sub)ect matter largely confined to portraiture.

0enaissance architectural forms were developed in 4lorence from &7D(s by Brunelescki

and were a sub)ect of a number of learned treaties from lberti in the &7D(s to %erico

and alladio over one hundred years later. s in 4rance, it was the court that was

responsible for the early use of classical form. !enry imported craftsmen from Italy and

4rance to wor2 in his numerous hunting palaces and manors. The earliest surviving

actual use of classical ornament is on the tomb of !enry VII in "estminster bbey

designed by the 4lorentine sculptor ietro Torigiano who had actually been a fellow

student of 1ichelangelo in the school run by the 1edicis.

It was more as ornamentation than the classical style began to appear, as for e#ample in

a classical capital in Chelsea Church, ondon or the wooden pulpitum screen in ing5s

College Chapel, Cambridge <&';'=.

This has a strong flavour of the ombardian 0enaissance from the hand of Italian

craftsmen. The oire chateau# building programme of 4rancois I contributed a number

of craftsmen who wor2ed at !ampton Court. %t. ames5s alace. The si#teenth century

was no e#ception in showing royal favour to those who had supported the monarch in

times of difficulty, particularly during the struggle with the Church %ize emphasized

status rather than convenience. fter the @issolution of the monasteries, building

material especially stone was used for stately homes.

The traditional /uadrangular plan was gradually superseded by the open plan. This

created the need for an imposing front with the entrance set into a central pro)ected bay

against which the classical orders were displayed in ascendic stages with the @oric on

the lowest. The proportion and accuracy varied according to the source, usually a

pattern published in 4rance and 4landers. %erlio5s treatise on architecture was not

translated into English until &A&(.

s stone was costly, many si#teenth century houses used bric2 e#tensively, often of a

reddish hue and insert with a che/uer pattern of blac2 or white bric2s. Terracotta was

sometimes used instead of stone.

There was also an increasing emphasis on symmetry of flan2ing wings at each side.

"indows were large and rectangular with lead glazing bars set between millions of

transoms. horizontal band of bric2 coursing might be used to define the level of the



floors from the e#terior. 0oofs were still often steeply pitched but now pro)ected out

over eaves instead of falling behind battlemented parapets. s roofs spaces were used

for additional servants5 /uarters, light was admitted through gables pro)ecting at

intervals from the main roofline. ?ther memorable features of the roofline of Tudor

houses are the batteries of tall cylindrical bric2 chimneys e#hibiting intricate pattern

wor2.

The reign of Elisabeth I witnessed the building of a member of 2prodi#*2 houses,

remar2able for their size as well as a more serious approach to classical form. 1ost

notable were those attributed to obert Smithson who was described on his tombstone

as 6rchitect and %urveyor unto the most worthy houses6. %ymmetry of enormous

windows 3 more windows than wall, classically-ordered pilasters entrances, @oric pedimented doorcases, and flat roofs hidden by open parapets adorned with triumphal-

arch motifs and sculptures, chimneys in the form of Tuscan columns surmounted by

entablature and cornice. The roofs served as a promenade for the households and guests

and domed pavilions as ban/ueting houses where wine and sweat meals were served.

*alleries were used to display family portraits, as the family pedigree was very

important to the Elizabethan gentry. way from the mansions several academic

buildings in ?#ford and Cambridge began to show signs of classical style towards the

close of the century. t Cambridge that includes the Gate of )onour that began to show

signs of the classical style towards the close of the century. In the Great Court of 6rinit*

College there is a fountain beneath a canopied octagonal arcade supported on Ionic

columns from about &A(&. It also e#hibits strap wor2s on each side and a rampant lion

clasping a shield displaying the Tudor arms surmounts the canopy.

1.(. he aco3ean House

The period of &A(;-&AD( was, to a certain e#tent, a continuous of the Tudor age, at least

from architectural point of view, that witnessed the building of another batch of prodigy

houses.

It is a period of design, of sense of mass and silhouette and less of a show of great

windows. The buildings were built on an ) or ! plan. The ! plan was perhaps used for

the first time at Wimbledon )ouse which had deeply pro)ecting side wings. The E plan

separated the apartments for the royal guests, the 2ing in the east wing, the /ueen in the

west. It has a central lin2ing bloc2 built of stone, some of which was pillaged from St. "u#ustine9s "bbe*, Canterbury. obert Cecil too2 great interest in the architecture of



that time and built some of the most representative buildings )arwich )all which is

one of the earliest houses to have a grand staircase. The architect elaborated patterned

newel posts support carvings of putti and monsters> long galleries directing over a

loggia, fire places flan2ed by paired columns of alabaster. The ! plan was also used at

Charlton )ouse, near *reenwich. The house is predominantly of red bric2 with stone

for windows. The magnificent stone centre piece was borrowed from *erman patterns>

the roofline is bro2en by tall bric2 chimneys of elaborated patterning. Its acobean

identity is firmly secured by the tall, lead-capped turrets, placed to each side of the

house.

1.*. In%igo ones

Indigo ones was the first to introduce the classical style in his study. !e visited Italyseveral times and he became an interpreter of the Italian architectural style of that time.

"hen he came bac2 his ma)or wor2 was the ueen9s )ouse, *reenwich, which was

severely altered by ;ohn Webb in &AA(. ones was responsible for the first e#ample of

formal town planning in $ritain, that of Covent Garden, dating from the &A;(s, which is

said to resemble the lace des Vosges in aris <&A('=. It comprised terraces over

ground, arcades on the eastern and northern sides while the west contained the church of

%t. aul. s a Court architect, ones was also responsible for the design of the ueen9s

Chapel, St. ;ames9s 4alace for rince Charles5s 4rench Catholic bride !enrietta 1aria

and the White )all 4alace, and also for the restoration of %t. aul Cathedral.

1.+. he )eventeenth Century $anneris"

The impact of the 0enaissance of the classical architecture was different. The degree of

the classical influence in houses of the mid century varied from the heavily Italianate

buildings by or attributed to ohn "ebb and his circle, to the @utch alladianism, a

result e#ile during the Commonwealth of builders in sympathy with the %tuarts cause.

The @utch influence in the second half of the seventeenth century is more formal to the

e#tent that buildings seem rather /uaint. The roof is hipped, sometimes balustraded and

adorned in the centre by an octagonal lantern and cupola. 0ed or pin2ish bric2 is always

associated with @utch architecture 3 !olland has no natural building stone, but in

$ritain it made the nglo-@utch style of the 0estoration. ediments are adorned with

cartouche and swags. ilasters are not used, and the main floors are divided by a plat- band and the entrance door is surmounted by a pediment.



In the second half of the seventeenth century the ! plan of the Tudor and acobean

period was again popular. The walls of the principal rooms are covered with e#/uisite

paneling in oa2 and walnut with highly naturalistic fruit and flower carving. The high

plaster ceilings are divided by deeply molded rectangular and elliptical panels,

decorated with flower moldings. The first half of the seventeenth century was not one

for ma)or churches building. In many cases it was a /uesting of alteration rather than

rebuilding, such as the introduction of pulpit and family pews or a carved screen.

Grownbrid#e, ent, and St /atherine Cree, ondon.

part from the rebuilding of the City of ondon churches after the *reat 4ire, ma)or

churches building did not start again until the eighteenth century by which time $ritain

had absorbed the $aro/ue, and was not on the verge of alladianism.

1.. Christopher 4ren an% !enaissance

!e was the architect who rebuilt %t. aul5s Cathedral. !is achievements were due to the

unfortunate circumstances of the *reat 4ire of ondon in &AAA> he was appointed

%urveyor of the ing5s wor2, an appointment he held for over 7( years and would

probably have remained in academic appointments in ?#ford. !e was brought up in an

atmosphere of pronounced royal learning. !e was sent to "estminster %chool and

entered "adham College ?#ford in &A7B. Gpon graduation he remained a lecturer inmathematics until &A': when he was appointed to the *resham rofessorship in

stronomy, in ondon, and he became a 4oundation 1ember of the 0oyal %ociety. !is

turning to architecture was unusual. In &AA; "ren was appointed a member of the

Commission for the repair of the %t. aul5s Cathedral started by Ingo ones. !e visited

4rance in &AA' where he met the greatest master of the Italian $aro/ue, *ianlorenzo

$ernini, who was there to design an east front for ouvre. !e studied ouvre in detail,

visited Versailles )ust before the e#pansion under evan and ;. ). $ansard . %t. aul5s

must have been uppermost in his mind and so he would have paid particular attention to

the churches of the Sorbonne by ;ac8ues Lemercier . These in turn were influenced by

churches in 0ome such as 0l Gesu. The sight of these and an engraving of %t. eter5s

0ome, with the dome completed after a design by 1ichelangelo must have reinforced

"ren5s desire to ma2e a radical brea2 with tradition. "ren could hardly have 2nown

how fortunate he was going to be )ust si# days after the approval of his plan the *reat

4ire swept across the City of ondon between D and A %eptember. !e rebuilt ';

churches, %t. aul5s Cathedral and the Customs !ouse.



"ren resigned his office of %urveyor5s "or2 in &:&+. s opportunities were given to

younger men, the $aro/ue style now was being superseded by the austere alladian

movement. !e died at the age of B& and he was buried in the crypt of %t. aul Cathedral.

1.. he Baro5ue )tyle

In architectural terms, $aro/ue is associated with the 0oman Catholic Counter

0eformation and the spiritual zeal of the Church in Italy and Central Europe in the

seventeenth century.

It invo2es visions of highly ornamented facades and a sense of movement created by a

flow of concave and conve# surfaces, of interiors in which illusion of heavenly or

courtly grandeur are created by merging of architectural forms into indefinite space.

Gianloren%o and 3rancesco Borromini are the supreme architects and Giovanni Battista

Gaulli and "ndrea 4o%%o the masters of painterly illusions <the creator of the

architectural tromp7l9oeil ceilin# =.

Gnli2e on the continent, the baro/ue movement in $ritain was heavy and austere with a

vigorous modeling of contrasting parts or masses into bloc2s. William 6alman <&A'(-

&:&B= introduces a classical grandeur new to domestic architecture.

8icholas !aw2moor began his career in architecture rather in the shadows of "ren. !e

wor2ed at %t. aul5s Cathedral, Chelsea )ospital, /ensin#ton 4alace, and Greenwich

)ospital . !e adapted the design of grand entrances almost crushed by huge pillars. !is

most original contributions are si# ondon churches constructed as a result of the &:&&

"ct for 3ift* +ew Churches. $uilt in stone and rectangular in plan, they all have an

austere simplicity. !eavy 2eystones over windows, thic2 doorcases and a variety of

town design rival those of "ren. 6homas "rcher <&AAD- &:7;= was the most baro/ue of

$ritish architects, having spent some years in 0ome. !is first commission, the church of

%t. hilip, $irmingham, evo2es $orromini in the concave surface of the tower.

;ohn <anbru#h <&AA7-&:D:= created the impression of power and grandeur in $ritish

*othic architecture. t $lenheim, commissioned in &:(; by ;ohn Churchill, <anbru#h

and )awkmoor created a mansion covering about seven acres. It is a mighty assertion of

power and the gift of a 6grateful nation6 to one that had clipped the power of ouis IV.

The wor2s of ;ames Gibbs <&A+D-&:'7= varies from the spirit of 0oman $aro/ue to the

austerity of the alladian movement. !e uses Ionic and Corinthian pilasters. !is



windows are surrounded by alternate courses. ?f pro)ected bloc2s, the so called 2Gibbs

surround2 .

1.16. he Palla%ian $ove"ent

The revolt against the so called Baro8ue started in about &:&' and was almost as much

about politics as taste. The $aro/ue was associated with the )i#h Church, the 6or* 4art*

and the )ouse of Stuart. It was essentially a "hig artistic movement although it also had a

strong literary foundation. In their search for a pure architectural style, the "higs were

helped by the publication of two boo2s which e#tolled the virtues of alladio as the

2architectural truth2 Indigo ones as his disciple. "hile the movement re)ected $aro/ue

e#travagance and over-ornamentation, it does not mean that alladian buildings were

necessarily austere. Colin Campbell was the leading architect of the movement. !e was alawyer but he turned his mind to architecture designing a house for one of his clan in

*lasgow in &:&D. !e absorbed alladio5s vocabulary and detail principles in uattro Libri.

!o2um !all entrance !all or Egyptian !all

E#ternally, many alladian houses were e#tremely austere simple @oric 3 ordered door-

case 3 others have a subtle elegance which can only be fully appreciated from distance 3

entrances and garden fronts have a central pediment e/ual in inclination to the slope of the

roof behind.

1.11. o/n planning

There was no consideration of formal town planning before &A;(s. The most open and

impressive area would have been the mar2et place or a space ad)acent to the parish church

where the town hall, perhaps over a colonnade, a grammar school lin2ed to the neighboring

parish church or a trade guild would have been located. 8othing in $ritain rivaled the

grandeur of a formal continental town centre such as that of <icen%a in Italy or aris as it

was developed from the reign of !enri IV or the purpose-built planned grid town of

0ichelieu. It was the 4lace des <os#es <&A('= which inspired ones5s layout of Covent

*arden in &A;(s.

$y &:(( the population of ondon was growing appreciably and ribbon development was

spreading. %uccessive "cts of 4arliament began to regulate the use of non combustible

materials for building and there were regulations governing the height and width of facades

and new streets. The 1ayfair and 1arylebone district of ondon5s "est End laid on a

semi-grid pattern about &:D(.



In &:(( $ath was a small and hardly e#tended beyond its medieval walls. It had hot

mineral springs famed since the 0oman Empire, but barely accommodate the needs of

fashionable visitors. lans were drawn for speculative development of fields beyond the

then city limits. In Edinburgh, soon called 2"thens of the +orth2 , a huge area was laid

down on a grid plan by ;ames Crai# between &:A:-&+7(.

$y the end of the eighteen century many ports and seaside resorts had terraces, s/uares and

crescents. They witnessed the erection of five rows of bric2 terraces and balconies. In

iverpool, which saw the greatest growth of any town in &+th century, elegant bric2 terraces

were laid out. The more fashionable houses have continuous cast-iron balconies.

$etween about &:'(-&B(( the development of $ritish architecture becomes e#tremely

comple#, even though the *othic may seem very much the style of the Victorian era with

its wide ranging application from churches to railway stations and public schools to hotels

and prisons.

Chinese %tyle made its brief appearance by the Chinese 4avilion at ew, followed, in

about &:': by the more famous five-stage pagoda in %hugborough. The Chinese or

2Chinoiserie2 went well with the delicacy of the current 0ococo interior. In &:'' the

*erman art historian and archeologist Winckelmann published his 60eflections on the

ainting and %culpture of the *ree2s6 which led to the fundamental change in the

understanding of classical !istory. !e said that the 2Greeks were the creators of classical

perfection and the omans their cop*ists2 . !e felt that the spirit of the noble simplicity and

calm grandeur found in their art should be applied to the art of the present. !is writings

fuelled the spirit of the neo-Classical movement which affected architectural development

throughout $ritain and modern Europe from aris to %t. etersburg and across the tlantic

to 8ew 9or2 and "ashington. "hile in 4rance it was seen as a reaction against the

frivolity of the 0ococo of the reign of uis V, and it was to be associated to the moral

virtues of the classical world and to be revived by 0evolution, in $ritain it was more

archeologically based. The study and the e#amination of classical remains at first hand

were encouraged by the 0oyal cademy.

The second half of the eighteen century is dominated by the wor2 of obert "dam <&:D+-

BD= and Sir William Chambers <&:D;-BA=. The former is a master of invention and

adaptation, with an eye for ornament, and Chambers, cold and aloof and a brilliant

draughtsman. The latter continued the late 4alladian tradition as he produced a wor2 that



rises to the grandeur of contemporary building in aris such as that on the north side of the

4lace de la Concorde.

nother significant architect of the time was William Wilkins <&::+-&+;B= who had been a

classical scholar at Cambridge before e#tensive travels in Italy, *reece and sia 1inor he

produced several fine essays on architectural styles.

The most appropriate buildings to be clad in a *ree2 s2in are museums and none more so

tan the British $useum in ondon. 4ounded in &:'; in $onta#ue )ouse, it had by the

&+D(s became too small and so was totally rebuilt by %ir 0obert %mir2 who fronted it with

7+ huge Ionic columns. /arl 3riederich Schinkel clad his "ltes $useum, $erlin in Ionic

columns at the same time. In Edinburgh the narrow causeway lin2ing the 1ound with

4rinces Street and the 8ew Town became the site for the o*al Scottish "cadem* and

+ational Galler*, both in the severe *ree2 @oric by William 4la*fair . current or feeling

which swept through both the *ree2 and *othic revivals is the omantic $ovement. It

embraces landscape gardens and urban par2s. erhaps the great master was ;ohn +ash

whose wor2 ranges from the oriental, through Italianate villas, to urban planning to rival

"ren5s visions. !is greatest wor2 was the layout of e#ent9s 4ark and its lin2 through

e#ent Street to the centre of ondon.

erhaps $ritain5s most original architect was ;ohn Sloane <&:';-&+;:= who is best described

as a romantic classicist. !e traveled e#tensively in Italy and gazed on the ancient *ree2

temples. !e built the Bank of !n#land in &:++, he created a vast area of courtyards,

colonnades and vaulted and domed chambers behind a wall of 4ortland Stone dressed with

Corinthian pilaster and framed at the corners with temple pavilions from Tivoli. !is vaulted

halls reduced structure and ornament to its most simple and he virtually created a new

grammar of ornament based on grooves and incised lines of *ree2 ey.

feature of the nineteenth century social and intellectual life was the rise of the club,

public library and literary institute.

The population was e#panding rapidly and new centres of commerce and industry were

springing up. Cast iron, used so effectively on the bridge across the %evern at

Coalbroo2dale, was now utilized as the framewor2 and weight-bearing structure of

doc2sides warehouses and the cloth and woolen mills of the north. The first enclosed doc2

warehouse system with floors of ondon clay bric2 cladding an iron cage and resting at

ground level on immense cast-iron columns.



1.12. othic )urvival an% !evival

*othic style never really died out in $ritain. *othic was still preferred in the

seventeenth century. =>ford 5niversit* Colle#e was rebuilt from &A;7, a hall and as

chapel> at ?riel between &A;B and &A7( and a *othic chapel at incoln College in &A+&.

close e#amination of the detail will give a 2ey to the early &+ th century approach to

the style 3 it is really *othic under a classical restraint.

The founders of the revival of the *othic style are Sanders $iller <&:&:-+(= and

)orace Walpole <&:&:-B:=. The former created sham castles and towers, pictures/ue

*othic summer houses windows with flimsy tracery beneath the ubi/uitous ogee hood,

a rose window in the centre li2e a star, open tracery or the parapet reduced to the

delicacy of lace and the balustrade of the entrance stair pierced with foiled openings.!orace "alpole was also the author of the first *othic novel, 6he Castle of =tranto. !e

bought a cottage at Twic2enham and over the ne#t '( years turned it into one of the

greatest attractions for visitors to ondon. $y the time the house was complete it had

inadvertently introduced a new mood of architectural design which was the 2ey note of

the ictures/ue 1ovement, asymmetry. "alpole described his house as a 6pie-crust

*othic which will after his death be blown away in the wind li2e dust6. 4ortunately it

has survived.

$y the early nineteenth century, *othic was being used for churches e#ploiting the new

material of cast iron. ppropriately, several of the finest e#amples are by the man who

was the first to analyze the development of the style and place it into a meaningful

chronology. !e was 6homas ickman <&::A-+7=. !is 2nown buildings were in

Cambridge 8ew Court and the so called 2Brid#e of Si#hs2 at %t. ohn5s College.

The year &+;A mar2ed another turning point in the *othic movement. Charles Barr*

<&:B'-&+A(= won the competition for a design for the new !ouses of arliament to replace

those burnt in &+;7. "hilst the basic plan is $arry5s, the detail 3 including the Cloc2 Tower

and Victoria Tower, is ugin5s 3 who was the sustainer of the 6True rinciples and ointed

or Christian rchitecture6 3 he said that 6*othic was the only style suitable for a Christian

church, and that a successful architect must be a practicing Christian.

Geor#e Gilbert Scott <&+&&-:+= is said to have designed and restored over 7(( churches

and ;7 cathedrals. "lfred Waterhouse <&+;(-&B('= was another outstanding and prolific

e#ponent of the movement. !is most memorable building is 1anchester Town !all. It

stands solid on an irregular site, its main faSade dominated by a splendid tower, asserting



1anchester5s place as the second city of the Empire. *othic style villas and railways

stations sprouted throughout $ritain. In the real world of e#pending cities and industrial

suburbs, domestic architecture was much more basic and functional, although it was often

sufficient to give an immediate social definition to an area. There was a growing

preference for Tudor5s style with wide mullioned windows set into red bric2 interspersed

with che/uer wor2 terracotta tiles, or stone dressings as in some of the best e#amples in

8orth ?#ford, sometimes described as the finest surviving upper-middle-class Victorian

suburb.

In such suburbs many houses were semi-detached, however at the other e#treme there were

miles and miles of two-up, two-down wor2ing class streets lined with flat fronted terraces

without a bath or indoor toilet. The only visual brea2 would come at the end of a street,with a corner shop, or public house which might offer a little decorative relief.

1.1#. he 26th Century

$y the last decade of the &Bth century architecture had moved into the realm of engineering

and a lively debate started as to the aesthetics of what some saw as the product of the

machine age. "braham ?arb* had spanned the %evern with his magnificent east-iron

arched bridge which was seen as having an 6ac/uired beauty6.

In &+B7 Tower $ridge was opened across the Thames two cast-iron towers clad in an

elaborate stone s2in of *othic detail. In the centre the huge bascules rise to allow the

passage of ships. $y the end of the century architecture had become a fully chartered

profession. It was the lift developed by !lisha G. =tis in 8ew 9or2 in the &+'(s which

really transformed the size of buildings, not only in the Gnited %tates with the steel 3

framed s2yscrapers of 8ew 9or2 and Chicago, but the hotels, stores and office bloc2s of

the $ritish cities. The $aro/ue seemed to e#ude the right /uality of confidence for $ritain

as she sailed into the iron clad era immediately before the 4irst "orld "ar. The flourish of

the new theatres and music balls which certainly in their interiors tried capture a little

contemporary aris and Vienna.

It was a mi#ture of "ren and Vanbrugh embellished with flavour of Garnier 5s aris ?pera.

"ith the electric lift, stores and hotels rapidly increased inn size. The steel frame was used

for the basic structure and clad in store and bric2. The large shop or store was really a

arisian invention of the late nineteenth century with the Bon $arche of the &+:A and

rintemps, &++(. In England the 1arshall and %nelgrove %hop in ?#ford %treet, ondon,

by b?ctavius !ansard was the earliest <&+:A=. $y &B(( they were rising fast )arrods5s in



$rampton 0oad, in $as/ue yellow terracotta tiles still e#udes Edwardian opulence,

%elfridges in ?#ford %treet <&B&(=, and is in the !igh 0enaissance style with giant ordered

half pillars of white stone.

!otels were built to cater for the increasing tourism encouraged by a developed railway

system, although there were clear social divisions between those who stayed in cheap

seaside lodgings and those who stayed at a resort, spa or city according to the

recommendation of $urra*9s Baedeker or other guideboo2s. 4or the latter the Grand )otel

became one of the first, conveying distinct flavors of the 4rench %econd Empire style of

napoleon III. The Grosvenor )otel , ondon, ad)acent to *rosvenor lace, is another ma)or

e#ample in this style.

$y the early years of the twentieth century ostentation tended to be increasingly reserved

for interiors. formal classicism strengthened in its weight by rusticated courses prevailed

in some of the ma)or ondon !otels. +orman Shaw9s 4iccadill* )otel <&B('-(+= has a

ground colonnade filled by shops> while above, two pavilions are lin2ed by a long free

standing Ionic colonnade. The it% )otel, again in iccadilly, by Charles $ewes and

"rthur ?avis <DB(;-(A= also has a ground-floor arcade. bove, the windows are divided by

vertical rusticated strips and the main floors are divided from the attic stages and roof by

an unbro2en cornice.

lthough $ritain was not to be influenced by the rt 8ouveau 1ovement to the e#tent of

the continent <$arcelona of *audy or $russels of !orta= there was one ma)or $ritish

e#ponent 3 Charles ennie $ackintosh whose greatest wor2 is placed in *lasgow %chool

of rt. %et on a steep slope, it is angular and restrained in its use of curves> the walls are of

granite and the main lin2 with the continent is the curving ironwor2 and ornamental

pro)ections from the windows. 4or curve and flow and use of coloured tiles, the

/uintessential elements of the style, the entrance to the former 6urke* Caf@ in eicester

designed by "rthur Wakerle* <&B((-((&= is an e#cellent e#ample.

The Victorian age had witnessed the transformation of $ritain from a land of country to

town dwellers. The population settled where industry developed with all the resulting

social conse/uences. 4ew thought of the health of the people growing up and living under

a constant pall of smo2e. %ir 6itus Salt was an e#ception in the &+'(5s with his model town

of Saltair near $radford. !ere he built homes for his employees, a hospital, a chapel, high

school and a school of art. This was followed towards the end of the century by Lord

Lever9s 4ort Sunli#ht near iverpool or Geor#e Cadbur* at Bourneville, $irmingham.



?ut of this was born the Garden Cit* association, inspired by !bene%er )oward9s 2Garden

cities of 6omorrow2 <&B(D=. !e considers that the town would be a fully contained unit

complete with educational and medical facilities as well as shops. It would also have a

generous provision of par2s surrounded by a protected or 6green belt6 of open country.

They would be lin2ed by a reliable system of rail communications. The first of these

towns, Letchworth, )ertfordshire, was built after &B(;, was followed by many others. The

style used was a vernacular country-cottage type with prominent gabled wrings.

fter the 4irst "orld "ar further radical changes affected the growth of towns and the

ordinary domestic house. The widespread employment of women in the hitherto male-

dominated professions and trades led to the higher social aspirations. The semidetached,

three-and four bedroomed Tudor-style bric2 house was born> on a slightly less grand scalethan the prototypes, the middle-class mansions.

Villages )oined towns and towns built by passes to encourage the motorists to stay outside.

The 4irst "orld "ar also mar2ed the end of ma)or country house building in $ritain, partly

due to size, cost of up2eep, and the drifting away from domestic employment. If the first

two decades or so of the twentieth century seem to continue the process of stylistic

revivals, the international 1odern 1ovement began to ma2e an impact in the &B;(5s,

helped by the in flu# of architects and scholars see2ing refuge from the rise of 8azism andCommunism on the continent.

The first architect to show the characteristic plain white surfaces, windows set in steel

frames and a flat roof was the *erman 4eter Behrens. 0ight angles rather than curves now

seem to predominate, a feature of cubism.

The writings of the Corbusier , first published in English in &BD:, were also claiming

serious attention. The first bloc2 constructed on his principles in $ritain was )i#h 4oint ,

)i#h Gate which has all the ingredients of the cubist vision of clean lines, floors of steel

framed studio windows and pro)ected balconies. t /uarry !ill, eeds, flats were built as a

conscious attempt to copy a wor2ing class estate in Vienna. ?ther foreign architects who

wor2ed here included the *erman refugees !nrich $endelssohn and Walter Gropius,

leading figures of the Bauhaus closed by the 8azis in &B;;.

revolutionary industrial building of the decade is Sir =wen Williams Boots9s

pharmaceutical factory at $eeston, 8ottingham, and that of 4eter ;ones9s ?epartment



Store, Sloane S8uare, ondon. Its si# floors continuous se/uence of rectangular panels

along the two entrances facades became a model for many post-war department stores.

The 1odernization of the railways and e#pansion of the underground system in the

ondon %uburbs witnessed the use of new materials and design.

The %econd "orld "ar really held up architectural progress until the &B'(s. 1ass housing

brought the benefits of a green environment to the urban population. lans were a foot for

the creation of satellite towns outside the large conurbations. 8ew airports were developed

such as )eathrow and Gatwick with huge terminals buildings spanned by roofs of

reinforced steel, long wal2ways and balconies of concrete.

The 4estival of $ritain, li2e the aris International E#hibition of &++B, left one permanent

and well 2nown building, the o*al 3estival )all by obert $atthew and Sir Leslie

$artin. The e#terior was remodeled but the interior introduced a magnificent spatial flow

of galleries, landings and open-area restaurants with lin2ing stairways.

In all establishments of higher education the emphasis has been increasingly on light, with

wall-to-wall windows. The on- all effect of some universities and colleges has been rather

reminiscent of prisons with vast areas of bare bric2.

$ut is the realm of post-war housing that we find the most controversy. "hat was notdesignated for urban motorway was given over to high-rise flats reaching ever-increasing

heights as the decades passed. In &BA( the age of s2yscraper begins with the building of the

giant head /uarters of Shell 4etroleum. The Centrepoint arose at the )unction of ?#ford

%treet and Charing Cross 0oad, and Llo*d9s 0nsurance 6ower in the City of ondon &B:+-

+A which is fully e#posed to view inside along with the ducting and peeping and lift casing

on the outside. It is altogether a more successful wor2 than the earlier *eorge ompidou

Centre in aris, and loo2s highly effective in blue floodlighting. In terms of size, Canary

"harf in ondon5s @oc2lands outstrips anything in the City of ondon. @esigned by

Cesar 4elli, it rises almost sheer to its pyramid roof. In some respects, it is a reproduction

of the elli towers seen in several merican locations including 1anhattan.

$y the end of &B+(5s the terminal railway station was seen as a piece of architecture which

could be hidden from view after all with electricity having replaced steam traction there

was no need for the huge cast iron roofs above the platforms. The space could be used for

offices.



@readful mista2es have been made 3 perhaps inevitably given the need for rapid rebuilding

of war damaged cities. The comprehensive redevelopment zones in different towns

re/uired the demolition of what remained after the war to be replaced by architecture

emphasizing raw concrete.

$ut the mood has changed and the emphasis now, and where appropriate, is on lightness

and color.

8ew buildings such as Glas#ow Conference Centre, considered as %cotland5s answer to the

%ydney ?pera !ouse or the 8ew %cottish 1useum are impressive. Their outward solidity

mar2s the inner space and transparency created by overhead and high wall glazing. They

demonstrate that $ritish architecture is alive and vibrant 3 though still fraught with

controversy as the neo-1odernists, technologists, traditionalists and environmentalists

continue to fight it out.



2. 7isual Arts

2.1. Arts in u%or's 8ynasty

The scholar type of the $ritish painting started with the &' th century, after s/uabbles of the

"ars of the two 0oses - the son of !enry VII, !enry the VIII although he was only eighteen

when he attained the crown in &'(B, he proceeded to ma2e his court one of the most splendid

in Europe. !e began as a 0enaissance prince model scholar, poet, musician, and swordsman.

E#travagant places for himself at Whitehall, )ampton Court and +onesuch, filling them with

artifacts made by s2illed craftsmen from all over Europe. !e invited the Italian sculptor

4ietro 6ori#iano to ma2e the effigy of his father on his tomb in "estminster bbey. The

*erman )ans )olbein <&7B:-&'7;= became his court painter. !e was born in ugsburg and

established in $asel and he belongs to the international circle of humanist scholars and artists

who epitomized the northern 0enaissance. !e designed illustrations to Erasmus5s most

famous boo2 66he 4raise of 3oll*6, earning his commendation as a 6wonderful artist6. !e

also e#ecuted two grand allegorical processions, The 66riumph of Wealth2 and 66riumph of

4overt*2 <now lost= for the !anseatic merchants5 ondon head/uarters, Stee*ard )all .

%hortly after !olbein5s arrival in ondon in &'DA, 1orus commissioned from him a large

portrait of himself surrounded by his family. The picture no longer e#ists, but is recorded in

copies, and !olbein5s pen drawing of the composition survives.

"hen !olbein returned to ondon from a long stay in $asel, he found the country on the

brin2 of radical changes. !enry VIII started a cultural revolution. !e assumed the control

over the Church and suppressed the monastic ?rders destroying the medieval civilization the

Tudor5s had inherited. Ecclesiastical and monastic establishments were emptied and in due

course despoiled iconoclastic mobs tearing down opish images, defacing sculptures and

obliterating wall-paintings as the rotestant religion had little use for visual representation.

!enry rebuilt art in his country as a system of propaganda for himself as a 6 defender of the

3aith2 . aintings would no longer depict the Virgin 1ary and Christ, but him and his dynasty.

$ut !olbein court portraits often stri2e an intimate note of a palpable human being, as he

preserves the ma)esty of the 2ing, but not his head which is surprisingly small.

"or2ing in ails on wooden panels, he followed a tradition that had been perfected in the

8etherlands and *ermany in the previous century. The use of canvas as a support was

beginning to come in, and he occasionally painted in tempera on cloth. The small li2eness of

!enry has the /uality of a miniature, and indeed !olbein was a master of this form too. !e

may have been taught to paint in little on vellum by !enry5s 6 pictor7maker2 , the 4lemish



Lucas )ornebolt or )orenbout <&7B(-&'77= whose superior position at court !olbein never

usurped. !e adopts his standard bac2ground of brilliant blue, which set off the head of the

sitter with charm and force.

"hen tac2ling great men li2e 1ore, he brings his penetrating eye to bear directly on face and

character, and ma2es us feel we had interrupted them in private, surrounded by ob)ects

characteristic of them the pen and paper of the writer, the boo2s in which the scholar is

absorbed, the measuring implements of the mathematicians. !olbein created models of state

and private portraiture that remained influential for his century, through his legacy was more

to do with calm and dignified presentation team with his refined analysis of character. few

artists learned something of this the Englishman ;ohn Bettes produced at least one highly

accomplished li2eness that reflects !olbein5s e#ample, and Gilliam Stretes or Scrots who

succeeded him at court from about &'7'. %crots is one of the several continental painters who

secured important commissions at his time.

!enry5s dynastic ambitions were /uashed when his son died in the seventh year of his reign,

aged fifteen. The crown passed to Edward5s elder sister, 1ary, a devout Catholic, who in &''7

married hilip II of %pain, son of Charles V, !oly 0oman Emperor. The English throne was

more closely united than ever with the great Continental !oses. $ut 1ary was largely

subservient to the family of her powerful in-laws. "ith their support she tried to revo2e the

0eformation, to reinstate the Church of 0ome in England where rotestantism was becoming

steadily more entrenched. !er efforts, involving the burning of many rotestants, brought on

her the oblo/uy of the nation. 1ary died in &''+, and her younger sister, Elisabeth ascended

the throne to become the last and greatest of the dynasty. fter the disaster of 1ary5s reign she

recognized the urgent need to create an iconography of herself that demonstrated her

uncompromising control of the 2ingdom. This aim became a formative influence on the

development of painting in England over the rest of the centuries.

n artist who had risen to prominence in Edward5s and 1ary5s reign, having come to England

from ntwerp in the late &'7(s, was )ans !worth <&'7(-:7= who revigorated !olbein5s

legacy in an output of characterful portraits not only of the notability but also of the landed

gentry.

In his picture !lisabeth 0 and the three Goddesses it celebrates the new /ueen in a

composition which gives the classical political twist. Elisabeth holding her orb of state as

though it were the golden apple of the !esperides seems to be weighing the merits of Venus,

uno, and 1inerva. 0ather than awarding it to one of them she confounds all three by

outshining them in their respective /ualities the beauty of Venus, the wisdom of 1inerva and



the strength of uno. !ere is the beginning of that 6cult of personality6 as important in

Elisabeth5s battle for the control of her nobles and the country as a whole. The portraits

painted of her from this time have the aim of reasserting the message. The portraits of

Elisabeth as /ueen tend to present her uniformity. Even the refined +icholas )illiard <&'7A-

&A&+= presents his /ueen in an oil painting as a distant generalized figure she is carved from

seasoned timber, immovable and fit to brave every gab. ainter as $arcus Gheeraerts or

)enr* Lee of ?itchle* ma2e us still feel the force of her minister5 propaganda.

!ans Eworth Elisabeth I and the three goddesses

The list of good native-born artist in the reign of Elisabeth is not a long one. ?ne of the most

conspicuous is Geor#e Gower whom Elisabeth made %er)eant ainter. !e was that typically

English character, the gentleman amateur who too2 his art seriously, enough to become

wholly professional. !e never achieved the greatest heights but he produced competent,

somewhat stiff but characterful heads that proclaimed the honesty of his approach. !e was

paid to underta2e a fair amount of ornamental wor2 for royal festivities, painting the panels of

coaches or ceremonial rooms in a style derived from the $annerists of 3ontainebleau and

$russels. The great houses of the period displayed the aristocratic version of that style.

Cornelis /etel <&'7+-&A&A= coming also from 8etherlands brought to such commissions the

full panoply of 1annerism elaborate allegories with contorted nude figures and a good deal of

eroticism that native artists would have been unli2ely to promulgate. 8evertheless, he was the

portrait painter the most valued of his age and in &'+7 he was proposed to be granted a

monopoly on all royal portraits, both painted and engraved. rints began also its long history

at that time, and miniatures represent the supreme achievement of the Elizabethan visual art.

The son of a goldsmith, !illiard had been trained in the shop of the /ueen5s )eweler and his

s2ill as a miniaturist grew naturally. !illiard5s wor2 is of ravishing delicacy and precision,

enhanced by rich color !illiard5s whole-length miniature of 6 " Aoun# $an amon# roses6 has

become an epitome of the age.

!illiard5s successors )oin his refinement and directness to a more opulent sense of decoration.

!is pupil 0saac =liver was the son of a !uguenot immigrant, and possessed an innate feeling

for Continental 1annerism. %ome of his miniatures are /uite large, with elaborate

compositions of whole length figures and carefully wrought bac2grounds.



2.2. he )tuarts 91*6#-1*:

Elisabeth died in &A(; and her %cottish successor, ames I, inaugurated a new dynasty. !is

court was a less sober place than Elisabeth5s and became the meeting place for many arts. $y

this time the Italian 0enaissance began to be absorbed in England. The artists were

encouraged to travel. It is the period of 0ndi#o ;ohns who was to transform architecture in

England. !e introduced a strict classical style based on the ancient 0oman theoretician

Vitruvius and his &Ath century interpreters %erlio and alladio. The paintings of William

Larkin DE7F& are full of brilliant color and gorgeous details. !e incorporated all the

elements of a standard Elizabethan portrait but with heightened brilliance. Costume becomes

a vital inde# of status its every fold, slash and pearl ac/uires prominence and meaning. It was

common for portrait painters to distribute different aspects of a picture to specialized

assistants face and hands by the principal, landscape, drapery, or still life by others.

?aniel $*tens <&'B(-&A7:= was not the only @utch painter wor2ing in ondon in the early

decades of the &:th century, but he was the most various and ambitious. nother, 4aul <an

Somer <&':A-&ADD= wor2ed on a larger scale, but more prolific was Cornelius ;ohnson or

;ansseus <&'B;-&AAD&=, *erman 4lemish by parentage, but born in England. !is portraits,

often simple head-and-shoulders, are distinguished for their gentleness and muted pearl color.

Inventiveness is not to be found in the wor2 of +athaniel Bacon <&'+'-&AD:= that seems to

have taught himself by a steady process of application. !is sub)ects loo2 entirely 4lemish or

@utch, but on closer inspection, his techni/ues are different. Everything is described in

meticulous detail. The painter li2es to pile his observations up in heaps fruit and vegetables,

games and fish, stones in a wall. In his %elf-portrait of about &AD(, it is boo2s that he

assembles one on top of another, a still life that tells us much about him. The thoughtful and

rela#ed formal pose, the use of accessories give 2nowledge about the sitter.

The wider learning of the new aristocrats meant that an altogether more 2nowledgeable

dialogue was beginning to ta2e place between ondon and the Continental centres on the

sub)ect of art. 8oble men and women commission painters li2e 4eter 4aul ubens on their

travels on the continent. !e came to ondon in &ADB on a diplomatic mission and too2 up

negotiations for a commission to decorate the ceiling of the Ban8uetin# )ouse of the ?uke of

Buckin#ham.

8athaniel $acon %elf portrait



The accession of Charles I made the English Court attained its clima# of 0enaissance

splendor. 0ubens called the 2ing the 6 #reatest amateur of paintin#s amon# the princes of the

world2. Charles5s collection of wor2s by Italian and 4lemish masters was the achievement of a

man much more interested in the arts than in government. !e was to pay the price for that

preference with its head in &A7B. !is collection was bro2en up, and its masterpieces now

grace the great galleries of Europe and beyond %t. etersburg, Vienna, 1unich, $erlin, aris,

and 1adrid.

The court set elaborate entertainments with 0ndi#o ;ones and Ben ;ohnson and later %ir

@avenant. The 6Cavalier poetr*6 flourished. "nthon* <an ?*ck <&'BB-&A7&= arrived in

ondon and set up his practice as it was unable to do so in ntwerp because his old master,

0ubens, was firmly established there. !e had developed into a virtuoso painter in a manner

that was a distinct variant of 0ubens5s and recently traveled in Italy, combining with his

4lemish style the richness of Venetian colour and a professional admiration for Titian.

E#ecuted with sweeping brush stro2es and overlaid touches of warm, semi-transparent

pigments <glazes= his portraits were destined to have an impact on $ritish art that would last

until the D(th century. Van @yc2 2new how to adapt his manner to the re/uirements of the

English. !e made informality the 2eynote of many of his English portraits. !is intuition is

submerged in a tactfully flattery that has preserved these unrealistic lords and ladies. They are

passed with rela#ed grace in settings that sometimes suggested nature in /uite wild moods.

There was so much variety in Van @yc25s wor2 that his influence remolded almost every

aspect of painting in England.

!e developed !olbein5s notions of the portrait into an intimate genre that was to have long

lasting appeal. !e also applied the grandest $aro/ue ideas to portraiture when a number of

figures were to be painted together. !is most influential essay in this vein is the huge group of

the 2!arl of 4embroke and his famil*2 <&A;7= in the @ouble Cube 0oom at "ilton < a house

designed by Indigo ones= The cast of characters is deployed across a stage of colossal

columns, steps and drapery and the solemn moment is blessed by hovering cherubs. The

design is monumental and natural, easy and grand at once.

!is effect on the wor2 of William ?obson <&A&(-7A= is obvious. lthough a very different

artistic temperament, elegance is replaced by matter of fact earthiness. !e is particularly

associated with the decorative borders for the famous tapestries woven after 0aphael5s designs

at the 1ortla2e tapestry wor2s, set up in &A&B. !e also designed boo2 illustrations and

schemes for house interiors. !e Venetian opulence comes from Van @yc2, as do its patrician

poise and theatricality. There were other worthy followers of Van @yc2. 3 )enr* Stone <&A&A-



'+= - who produced some able portraits, including a dignified full-face half-length of Charles

I, une#pectedly in circular format.

nd ?liver Cromwell was not indifferent to the arts. %everal painters flourished during his

rotectorate although the e#pansive patronage of royalty was incompatible with his style. !is

2court painter2 was obert Walker , a dour, dry imitator of Van @yc2 who was well aware of

his own limitations. 20f 0 could #et better, 0 would not do <an ?*kes2 , he said.

There were many other who continued the tradition established by @obson Samuel Cooper

trained as a miniaturist, ;ohn )oskins. Cooper was one of the first $ritish artists to wor2 in

pastel, a medium that became common for all small scale portraits in the late &: th century and

continued in use throughout the &+th century.

3rancis Barlow <&ADA-&:(7= seems to have trained as a portraitist painter, but devoted his

career to very different sub)ects. !e was the first native painter of animals and provides more

evidence that painting was developing in new directories in Europe. !is wor2 suggests that he

had close ac/uaintance with contemporary @utch and 4lemish animal painters li2e ;an

Weeni>, 3rans Sn*ders and $elchior d9)ondecoeter . ?nce $arlow had established it, many

artists too2 up animal painting and by the early years of the &+ th century the horse or dog

portrait was almost as common as the human li2eness. In &A;A the Earl of rundel brought to

England the $ohemian draughtsman Wenceslas )oller <&A(:-::= whose prolific output

included topographical views, introduced that fle#ible medium into the country for the fist

time. The stream of pictures showing panoramas of towns and cities, country houses and their

estates was developing. 8ot only the @utch but the 4rench landscapists wor2ing in Italy,

Claude Lorrain and Gaspard 4oussin were vital influences, with their development of the

ideal landscape as an abstract meditation on nature. It is a stage in the psychological growth of

the $ritish %chool by which artists in $ritain apprehended new purposes for painting, new

relationship between viewers and ob)ect.

The Commonwealth period <&A7B-A(= saw the rise to prominence of a new portrait painter,

the ?utchman 4eter Lel* <&A&+-+(=. !e produced pictures that reflected his @utch $aro/ue

bac2ground 3 classical landscapes peopled by na2ed nymphs.

fter the *reat 4ire in &AAA, Christopher "ren was charged with the reconstruction of

ondon and the new cathedral %t. aul5s. 8ew palaces were built and artists were brought

from abroad to cover walls and ceilings with allegory in !igh $aro/ue style. ntonio Verrio,

the 3renchman Louis Lar#uerre and the $ritish ;ohn $ichael Wri#ht , ;acob de Wet, ;ohn

Greenhill established an authoritative classicism in painting. The beauties of ely a graspable,

his gentlemen are vigorous personalities. Their faces are plumper, bac2ed by Van @yc25s stage



props columns, draperies or suggestions of 0oc2y outdoor settings creating romantic

wilderness against which the lustrous of the sitters stands in suggestive contrast.

ely painted the @uchess of Cleveland in roles as various as 1inerva, Venus, the 1agdalena

and the Virgin 1ary herself.

ohn 1ichael "right traveled in Europe, studying in 0ome probably in 4rance and the ow

Countries. !e is particularly poetic in his handling of the wistful sunset landscapes that

fre/uently feature in the bac2grounds of his portraits. acob de "et, the @utchman created

$aro/ue decorative schemes for %cottish !ouses with portraits such as ohn the Ist , 1ar/uis

of tholl. "ith his contorted pose and absurd 0oman amour the 1ar/uis e#emplifies an

e#treme of theatrically that portrait painters were to react against in the coming decades.

"hen "ilhelm of ?range, with his wife 1ary %tuart replaced ames II, the /uality of court

life underwent a radical transformation. The Catholic learnings of the %tuart were definitely

replaced by "illiam5s committed rotestantism. The opulence of the 0enaissance courts gave

way to a sober preoccupation with parliamentary government, the concerns of a burgeoning

mercantile class, and a new sense of responsibilities of high position since attained new

prestige, mar2ed by the burgeoning of the 0oyal %ociety which had been formally instituted

in &AA(. ainting too was a branch of learned en/uiry. 8ew mar2ets for art were beginning to

emerge, and new re/uirements were made of artists.

ortraiture, for instance, was changed notably by Godfre* /neller <&A7A-&:D;= native from

ubec2, was appointed 4rincipal painter to the 8ew ing in &A++ along with ;ohn ile*

<&A7A-&AB&=. !is characters gaze with a cool, grave regard, li2e monuments to ancient virtues.

The standard poses become stiffer, non predictable. The rhetoric of power shifts 2ey from the

self consciously erotic to the self-consciously respectable.

neller had a substantial rival in the @anish painter $ichael ?ahl <&A'B-&:7;= who wor2ed

in a very similar idiom, though with a greater delight in the $aro/ue accessories of full-

bottomed wigs and flowing draperies. little later, the spar2ling broadly handled whole-

lengths of ;ohn <anderbank <&AB7-&:;B= brought a certain 0ococo ebullience to the type. The

practice not only of portraiture but of painting as a serious art 3 was given verbal formulation

in the writings of another artist in this mould ;ohan ichardson. !is 2!ssa* on the theor* of

4aintin#2 was first published in &:&' and remained in print for most of the century.

The politically ambitious aristocracy art performed its function as propaganda. rchitecture,

painting and sculpture developed. This is the period when painting became 6collectibles6

desirable chattels in a wealthy man5s household.



William /ent <&A+'-&:7+=, architect, designer of furniture and garden created also mural

paintings at !ampton Court and ensington alace. William )o#arth <&AB:-&:A7= was one of

the most famous painters of his time. !e is associated with moral sub)ects, satires on the vices

of the age in small-scale scenes derived from @utch genre painting of the previous century.

!is scenes of everyday life are chapters of novels tracing the lives, rise and fall of types 3 the

ake, the )arlot, the 0ndustrious and the 0dle "pprentices. Each type is made thoroughly

individual as in a move, surrounded by a cast of believable, if @ic2ensian characters, and the

crowded paraphernalia of contemporary drawing-room or bawdy-house, ondon street or

prison. The series $arria#e a la mode traces the tragicomedy of a marriage of convenience in

which bride and groom go separate ways to destruction. later set of 7 scenes deals with

public life 0ndustr* and 0dleness& and the suite 2"n !lection2 is a product of !ogarth5s later

years and its comple# sub)ects are presented.

!ogarth was trained as an engraver, initially on silver and had /uic2ly entered the arena of

popular satirical engravings which were much in demand. This too was a fashion that had

come over from !olland. s the great age of the reproductive print in England was beginning,

it was a natural step for him to translate his paintings into prints. In &:;' he lobbied for

arliament to pass a $ill outlawing the piracy of prints and establishing a principle of legal

copyright <literary copyright had e#isted since &:(B=

"illiam !ogarth

In a performance of 66he 0ndian !mperor2 or the 2uest of $e>ico b* Spaniards2 the social

event is a session of amateur theatricals. !ogarth5s aim was to portray the English as more

human and at the same time more civilized than any other nation. !e could be offensively

chauvinistic, fulminating against the imposition of foreign models on English art. !is

energetic style of applying paint is itself almost a patriotic statement, ostentatiously free of the

constraints learnt in foreign academies. "ith these views it5s not surprising that !ogarth

campaigned for the recognition of a national school of painting. "hen 6homas Coram

established a home for foundling children in ondon he availed himself of an invitation to

paint for it, and encouraged him to commission other artists too. The 3oundlin# )ospital9s

Collection became an embryonic +ational Galler*, long before an institution was even

formally set up. !ogarth brought artists of very different interests to Coram5s intention



ichard Wilson and 6homas Gainsborou#h who are the first indisputable great masters and

also Geor#e Lambert .

"hen it made his mar2 as a painter, in &:D(s it was a new style of portrait the small-scale

family group !is inspiration was largely @utch and a number of artists practiced the form in

England. $ut there was another important strain in its parentage to the 4rench tradition that

owed in vitality to ;ean "ntoine Wateau <&A+7-&:D&=. !is influence was immense in fancy

pictures, consciously avoiding the moral weight of historical sub)ects.

nother painter patronized by Coram was 6homas Gainsborou#h who developed a distinctive

0ococo style, a pioneering theatrical painter.

2.#. he Age of In%ustry

The technological and social upheaval of the industrial revolution began with the first

steam pump of 6homas +ewcomen, and the fly-shuttle of ;ohn /a*. 8ewton showed

that the universe could be ordered and measured. @escartes in 4rance and ohn oc2e

considered that mental processes can be described and classified. In &:A+ the 0oyal

cademy was founded and provided training and e#hibition facilities for professional

artists. Its first rincipal was ;oshua e*nolds. !is art was a blend of theory and

opportunism. "hen he came bac2 from Italy, where he studied old masters, he

established himself as a natural leader. !e was passionate with his concerning identity

as an artist, modeling himself on 0embrandt. !e believed in the primacy of serious

sub)ect matters and the duty of the artist, if he could, to pursue history 3 sub)ects ta2en

from the $ible, classical mythology or literature. rt should embody supreme spiritual

grandeur, as it could raise the mind to contemplate things far above the mundane. !e

represented the antidote to !ogarth5s chauvinism as he felt himself a part of the

international current of art that brought an intellectual weight. !is male characters are

presented in their own personas, as statesmen, lawyers, generals, while women en)oyed

no self evident standing. They were largely passive, bear children and are only social

ornaments. !e adopted a destructive palette of pastel colours derived from the &: th

Italian master Guido eni.

The decorative /uality of such color schemes was of particular value to those painters

who were employed to adorn the newly built houses of nabobs, returned from India

laden with wealth. Into restrained ompeian interiors designed by obert "dam,

"ntonia Hucchi </:D+-B'= and "n#elica /auffman <&:7(-&+(:= brought sweetly



coloured lunettes and roundels in which allegorical figures grouped them in tasteful

attitudes, recreating the elegance of ancient 0ome.

0eynolds had a profound influence on all the succeeding generation of portraitists, most

noticeably on William Beeche* <&:';-&+;B= and ;ohn )oppner <&:'+-&+&(=, both of

whom were appointed painters to members of the royal family. There were also painters,

such Geor#e omne* <&:;7-&+(D= that evolved a more distinctive style.

The reproductive print was now a vital part of the art economy. The method was now

brought to new perfection by a s2illed group of Irishmen wor2ing in ondon. Than2s to

their sensitive translations of oil painting into rich blac2 and white, the wor2 of the

painters of the period became widely familiar.

n obvious e#ample of the scientific spirit at wor2 in this period is Geor#e Stubbs

<&:D7-&+(A=. !is reputation was made as a painter of race horses and other domestic

animals> he also painted lions, tigers, mon2eys, cheetah, even a zebra. !e also

e#perimented painting techni/ues in enamel colors, first non copper, then in

collaboration with the e#perimental potter ;osiah Wed#wood , who fired his paintings on

ceramic pla/ues.

The @utchman, ;an W*ck <&A'D-&:((= and his English pupil ;ohn Wootton <&A+D-&:A7=

refined the blend of animal painting and landscape.

;oseph Wri#ht of @erby is a painter of the industrial revolution producing some of the

most original images of the &+th century .!is views in forges, whether those of

blac2smiths or of ironUwor2ers, revive the $aro/ue e#citement of strongly contrasted

light and shade, with an entirely new sense of its pertinence to real, modern world. The

dramatic lighting in his paintings recalls Carravaggio and 0embrandt, where the s2ull in

the illuminated )ar in the centre is a 6vanitas6 symbol of death.

6homas Gainsborou#h e#perimented his brush to a cane and he made this way, parts of

his picture together> then whole going on 6at the same time, in the same manner as

nature creates her works2 .!e recopfigured the natural world according to the logic of a

picture space. !e produced many dozens of landscapes compositions in oils and also in

chal2s or by a process of monoprinting from glass plate 3 in which figures, trees, water

and hills are endlessly permutated in a lifelong e#ploration of abstract design.



The addiction to recognize the natural landscape reflected events in the real world. The

countryside was being transformed by the estates of simple land owners, while grand

garden schemes were being laid out.

Thomas *ainsborough andscape

ichard Wilson <&:&;-+D=, a "elshman painted views of 0ome and its environs in

which planes are set in simple relationships with one another, illuminated by a clear,

cool light and foliage is reduced to bold masses. The result is a monumental version of

ideal landscape, in which nothing superfluous to be essential statement intrudes.

The army of water colorists led from the mid-century by 4aul Sandb* <&:;(-

&+(B< became adept at describing the individual characters of places 3towns, villages

ruined castles or modern country seats.

aul %andby "indsor Terrace

1any of these artists, whether they wor2ed in oil or watercolor, came under the spell of

one influential foreign visitor the celebrated Venetian view-ma2er, Canaletto <&AB:-

&:A+=. !e came in ondon in &:7A The topographical detail of his landscapes appealed

to the pragmatic side of the English character. !e used bright clear colour and populated

his foregrounds with deft suggestions of elegant figures.

The master who invested the unpretentious world of pictures/ue rusticity with true

magic was ;ohn Crome <&:A+-&+D&=. !e was a lifelong admirer of the @utchman

)obbema and the invocation of such masters gave the pictures/ue a serious pedigree.

The history painters, in their high mindedness, embody some of the most significant

ideas about painting of their age, one of them was ;ohn )amilton $ortimer <&:7(-:B=

who specialised in sub)ects ta2en from early $ritish history. The Irish man ;ames Barr*

<&:7&-&+(A= was, perhaps the most incisive intellect of any $ritish artist of the time. !e

was a rofessor of painting at the 0oyal %ociety of rts with a series of huge canvases

e#pounding the rogress of !uman Culture, he engaged in a typically &+th century

celebration of the intellectual and scientific advances that coloured every aspect of

modern life.

The %wiss )enr* 3useli <&:7&-&+D'= brought the Sturm und ?ran# movement when he

settled in ondon in &:+(. !is 6poetical painting6 meant dealing with noble themes



from great literature and he drew from the classics from )omer, ?ante and the +orse

Sa#as to $ilton and Schiller . !e also followed the current rage of %ha2espeare

producing numerous paintings illustrating his plays.

!enry 4useli

The most convincing demonstration of the status history was the career of Ben1amin

West <&:;+-&+D(=. !e had come from hiladelphia and ta2en his sub)ects from classical

literature and history, that he was appointed history painter to 2ing *eorge III in &::D.

erhaps the finest of the history painters wor2ing in ondon was another merican, ;ohn Sin#leton Cople* <&:;'-&+&'=. "hen he came to paint a scene from a minor

engagement between the English and the 4rench in ersey in &:+& he created the finest

of all $ritish modern history painting 6The @eath of 1a)or eirson6 <&:+;=

ohn %ingleton Copley The @eath of 1a)or eirson

The drama of a high theatrical 2ind focuses on a group supporting the collapsed figure

of eirson blended successfully with details of contemporary costume and accurate

topographically.

William Blake <&:':-&+D:= is the best 2nown of the late &+th century history painter. !e

avoided the usual grandeur of scale, preferring water color or fresco of his own, a sort of

tempera made which have the tendency to dar2en severely over time. $la2e5s historical

sub)ects are from the $ible or 1ilton. !is visual language is highly personal his

e#aggerated gestures, distorted poses, but although leaving a great intensity.

"illiam $la2e The ngel rolling away the %tone from the %epulcre

2. &.!o"anticis"

The $ritish economic e#pansion in the &+th century made possible travel among a large

sector of the population. Italy was one of the countries mostly visited and made the

young generation absorb Classical and 0enaissance culture at first hand. E#cavations at



!erculaneum and ompeii began in &:7(s had a vivid evidence of the life in the 0oman

Empire. Even *reece and sia 1inor began to be visited.

The 4rench 0evolution in &:+B was the e#pression of European Thought over the

century. ;ohn Locke, <oltaire, ?iderot, ousseau who had insisted on the moral

inade/uacy of absolute regimes li2e that of 4rance. The "mericans9 ?eclaration of 0n

dependence from $ritain in &::A formulated a blue print for civil liberty. They all

represented the Enlightenment and people agreed that the nti/ue civilizations

embodied ideals of human conduct both social and personal.

The Earl of Elgin gave boost to the fashion when in &+(D he brought bac2 sculptures

from the arthenon in thens and e#hibited them in ondon. 0ich people, intellectuals

wanted their homes to be embellished by the refinement of that superior civilization and

they became contented for nearly a century with the second-hand 0oman architecture of

neo alladianism. The merican and 4rench 0evolutions uncor2ed other things. They

asserted that people are individuals with their sense of participating in a heroic destiny,

contributing something valuable simply by virtue not being human.

?ne painter who chimed with this emotionally charged cultural climate was $allord

William 6urner <&::'-&+'&=. !e was a student at the cademy of %chool by age of

fourteen, si#teen when he listened to 0eynolds5s @iscourse in &:B&. !e embraced the

idea of the old 1asters as what is greatest in painting. !e began his career as a

watercolor topographer, training as an architectural draughtsman even while he attended

the 0oyal cademy5s drawing classes. !is understanding of watercolor was enriched by

e#periments with oil at this time and in due course oil painting became for him a

translation of water colour practice

Constable <&::A-&+;:= was a prosperous miller5s son from %uffol2. !e attached less

importance to the tradition of the cademy that Turner did. It was Constable5s mission

to bring landscapes painting out of the cademic closet and face to face to the 6moral6

truth of nature. !is method was to paint natural scenes and ob)ects as directly as

possible, with as little intervening 6art6 as he could achieve. 1y pictures will never be

popular6, he said, 2for the* have no handlin#. But 0 don9t see handlin# in nature2.

Turner rarely made oil s2etches out of doors. !e won a *old 1edal at the aris %alon in

&+D7 for a series of 6si#-footers6 from their lateral dimensions. 4or each of them he

prepared a full-scale study. ?rdinary rural life was celebrated by Constable as though it

were heroic. Constable5s innovations were so far reaching and profound that they have



come to be ta2en for granted, and his wor2 now seems archetipally traditional. $efore

him, no one had painted nature with such intensity, freedom and insight.

Constable was more conservative politically and socially, he was more concerned with

the life of the ploughman that with modern machinery, while Turner embraces all

e#istence, past and present, town and country, rich and poor.

The s2etch made outdoors, whether in oil or watercolor became an essential part of the

landscape painter5s practice. This is in the hands of ;ohn obert Co%en, 6urner, 6homas

Girtin <&::'-&+(D= and ;ohn Sell Cotman <&:+D-&+7D= that watercolor achieved its

golden age. ?avid Co> <&:+;-&+'B= was also primarily a watercolorist but he also made

fertile the lin2 between watercolor and oil painting in this period.

The desire for descriptive precision manifested itself in a fashion for detailed narrative,

with accurately costumed figures and lively characterization. This was a bourgeois

variant of sublime history painting and it drew its inspiration from the &: th century

@utch. The e#ponent of this genre was ?avid Wilkie <&:+'-&+7&= who astonished

ondon when he showed his 2<illa#e politicians2 at the cademy.

n elaborately finished and comical scene of rustic life, it was a clever revival of the

2ind of sub)ect associated with artists li2e ;an Steen and 0saac van =stade. !e also

visited %pain and the art of <elas8ue% and $urillo changed him radically. The scale of

his figures increased and he often painted %panish sub)ects, modern or historical.

ortraiture was also the vehicle of men techni/ues or pyrotechnical s2ills )enr*

aeburn <&:'A-&+D;=, 6homas Lawrence <&:A'-&+;(= was largely responsible for

creating a series of brilliant state portraits.

%ome other painters of this period are ichard 4arker Bossin#ton <&+(D-D+=, who

en)oyed painting small historical sub)ects for their richness of colour and charm of

costume, William !tt* <&:+:-&+7B= made his distinctive contribution in the depicting of

the nude. !e modeled his techni/ues specifically ion 0ubens, his colouring on Titian.

obert Barker, ?avid oberts, ;ames Ward, ;ohn $artin, 3rancis ?anb*, and Samuel

4almer represent an improvement on painting which relieves art from any restraint it

has ever had. The first two produced panoramas depicting historical events displayed in

large rooms, dar2ened, while the canvas was so ingeniously lit so that visitors had the

impression that they were witnessing a vivid picture. ;ames Ward was specialized in

animal and landscape sub)ects following his hero 0ubens in scale and techni/ues. ;ohn



$artin and 3rancis ?anb* essayed apocalyptic sub)ects, the most e#traordinary visions

of blea2 desolation in 0omantic art. The wor2s of almer search for spiritual intensity

in elaborate pastoral sub)ects ta2en from 1ilton.

2.(. he ;ate 1th

Century

The e#pansion of $ritain5s industrial economy in the early &Bth century was

accompanied by political reforms and the beginning of change in social structure. The

population was increasingly concentrated in towns, with a steady loss of contact with a

traditional rural way of life.

The sense of $ritain5s world importance was embodied in the first "orld5s 4air 3 the

*reat International E#hibition in the Crystal alace in ondon, opened by Nueen

Victoria in &+'& and the building of the 8ew !ouse of arliament after the old one was

destroyed by fire in &+;7 made by Charles Barr* and ".W.+. 4u#in who preached the

absolute superiority of gothic architecture to all other building styles. rtists were

invited to submit designs. The Irishman ?aniel $aclise <&+(A-:(= and the %cottish

"illiam @yce <&+(A-A7= were successful. They went abroad to study the techni/ues of

murals frescoes. Thomas $ar2er had essayed an ambitious 6 $assacre of the Sciotes6

and 1aclise produced a powerful wor2 66he ?eath of +elson6, "ellington5s 1eeting

with $lucher that is impressive for their mastery of comple# compositions involving

many figures. !dwin Landseer <&+(D-:;= contributed with his favourite dogs and horses

that he endowed with human /ualities, placing them in situations where e#pressions and

attitudes too2 on comic or pathetic significance. Nueen Victoria and lbert preferred

3ran% Iavier Winterhalter <&+(;-:;= as their portraitist.

There were some $ritish pre-0aphaelite brotherhood painters who sought a more

inspired simplicity in the painting of the ate 1iddle ges William )olman )unt ,

?ante Gabriel osetti and $ado> Brown, 6homas Carl*le that produced comprehensive

humanity paintings. The pictures announce the new state of labor in England what have

been achieved by the Industrial 0evolution, but also the moral issues of modern life.

;ohn !verett $illais and William )olman )unt produce pictures to ;ohn uskin

concepts of painting every detail of the world e#actly as the eye sees. They would spend

hours in the woods and fields rendering the drops of dew on every last blade of grass.

?ne of the last members of the group "rthur )u#hes <&+;D-&B&'= produced "pril Love

and )ome from Sea, epitomize symbolic details and /uantities of the re-0aphaelitism.



The re-0aphaelites occasionally tac2led ambitious cycles of pictures. William Bell

Scott , 1ado# $rown created impressive se/uence of murals for 1anchester5s new Town

!all illustrating history events with vigor and originality.

The doyen of the modern genre painters was William 4owell 3rith <&+&B-&B(B= who

made a speciality of large crowded sub)ects which e#plore the social spectrum and

present it in anecdotal form. 0ichard @add <&+&:-+A= was incarcerated in an asylum for

having murdered his father where he spent his time painting and drawings watercolors

decisively crammed with details. $ut instead of observing the world around him, his

fantasies are peopled with fairies, goblins, and elves, ogres and symbolical figures of all

2inds. 1any other Victorian made fairy land the sub)ect matter of their pictures

3rancis ?anb* and Lewis Carroll . rich cumulative symbolism is overlaid present inthe illustrations to @ic2ens5s novels made by *eorge Cruic2shan2. The pro#imity of

painting to literature in the period is very apparent. It was precisely the symbolic

content of re-0aphaelites art was to have most impact on the ne#t generation.

2.*. he en% of the E"pire

0osetti anticipates the developments in art towards the end of the century. "l#ernon Charles

Swinburne, the 4rench Charles Baudelaire use the perennial themes 3 love and death,

woman-monster, seducer and destroyer, - recurrent image. The culminating formulation if this

international movement, variously 2nown as %ymbolism or @ecadence is Si#mund 3reud 5s

wor2 on dreams and the wor2ing of the unconsciousness. The development of disorientation

and desolation felt by people when @arwin revealed his terrible revelation led to the

vulnerability of Christianity and obviously, to the art of late &Bth century. The supreme image-

ma2er in the period is Edward $urne-ones who inseparately lin2ed to grayish, etiolated

figures, their pale thin faces staring unfocussed into nothing. !e produced neurotically intense

drawings and the water colors of sub)ects ta2en from medieval ballads and Christian legends.

!e also suggests egalitarianism which is a less of the power of love to transcend all barriers.

Burne7;ones belongs to the same family of 3ernand /nopff in $elgium, Gustav /limt in

Vienna and the youthful 4icasso in %pain.

Geor#e 3rederic Watts <&+&:-&B(7= began with ambition enough e#pounding noble ideas

about the human condition. Watts felt the need to become more abstract, dealing in allegorical

generalization that transcended local instances. The message of his wor2 6 Love and ?eath6 is

of stoical nihilism. !e painted nearly all the great men and women of his day endowing them



with immense weight and dignity. The pale forces of the states men ma2e us feel that the

responsibility of the whole world rest on their shoulders.

There were real talents to be discovered at the annual summer shows at $urlington !ouse.

%everal women have now regular e#hibitions !lisabeth Southerden, Lad* Butler . ?utstanding

among the %cottish contributors are William $c6o##art EJD7& whose swiftly brushed

scenes ta2e the breadth of 6urner and Co> to astonishing lengths.

It was the art that did not wish to tell a story, but offered simply the wor2 itself as it was.

"lbert $oore <&+7&-B;= painted models in classical dress, but he leaves them to spea2 for

themselves, in arrangements of ob)ects and fabrics that create warm chords of color and easy

pictorial rhythms evolved from careful mathematical calculations.

Walter 4ater opined that all art constantly aspires towards the condition of music and pictures

can be en)oyed as abstractions their representational content is reduced to a minimum.

The &+A(s were a time of radical change and young artist removed painting from common life

and ordinary e#perience, significant of something beyond the usual course of nature. The

atmosphere of this moment is elusive for self-confidence of contemporary life that tended to

draw out the doubtful, hesitant and genuinely passionate. Simeon Solomon <&+7(-&B('= chose

sub)ects that ta2e us into a lonely world of solitary erotic fantasy, reflecting his sense of

alienation as a ew and a homose#ual in a society too ready to discriminate against both.

The moods of these rebels can be grasped by loo2ing at the landscape painters *eorge

!enning Costa who e#pressed spiritual forces lur2ing in the Italian country side , the ghost of

the past ages. The elegiac /uality of the movement is summed up in a painting by 3red

Walker <&+7(-:'= 66he harbor of refu#e2 in which a familiar village setting, with alms houses

grouped round a chapel, becomes the stage on which a gentle drama of youth age and death is

acted out by country people. "alter is the leader of the illustrators who flourished during the

great magazine boom of the &+A(s, and even on this large scale his painting retains something

of the comprehension and intensity of that wor2.

$y the &++(s grain imports from merica and ustralia were bringing down the price of crops

and many country people had to find new wor2 in the fast growing industrial cities. There was

widespread poverty and distress. %ome artists felt that this was where their sub)ect matter

should be found, and, inspired by the 8aturalist movement in 4rance, where they had trained,

brought a gritty new penetration to their e#amination of rustic life. Ta2ing their lead

principally from the 4rench 6 plein air 6 movement led by ;ules Bastien Lepa#e, a group of

painters formed the 8ew English rt Club in &++A dedicated to the depiction of a wor2 day

life and landscape. Their leader was )enr* )erbert La 6han#ue <&+'B-&BDB=. ?ther 2ey



members of the 8EC were *eorge Clausen <&+'D-&B77= and Stanhope 3orbes <&+':-&B7:=.

Their wor2 proclaims the theoretical and technical divide. It insists on the rough unlovely

aspects of rural life and labor. 9et there is a warmth and tenderness in the 8EC style of

painting that imbues the coarse sub)ects with grace as well as dignity.

The 4rench influence too2 an important place in any assessment of ;ames "bbot $c+eil

Whistler <&+;7-&B(;=, an merican who lived in aris in the second half &+'(s. 1uch of what

ondon, where he settled in &+A(, found difficult to digest about him was assumed to come

from that capital of /uestionable standards. "histler had an innate sympathy for the bold

departures of !dward $anet, and learned to simplify and dramatize his sub)ects from him.

?rchestration of line and color became more important than the sub)ect. It was "histler who

made musical analogies e#plicit in painting. $ut he was nevertheless interested in sub)ect

matter. !is early pictures are full of early incident, and he was a prolific etcher, ma2ing prints

that record the life of the riverside with a 0embrandt-li2e penetration. !is portraits are lucidly

but /uietly conceived, with bold but unobtrusive structures. "histler made a point of acting

out his opposition to the establishment. !e dressed as a dandy, and wrote and spo2e

provocatively.

nother merican who came to settle in ondon via aris was ;ohn Sin#er Sar#ent <&+'A-

&BD'=. !e lived in Italy and e#udes the opulence of the Catholic cultures of southern Europe.

!e /uic2ly established himself as a virtuoso of the brush. !e could catch his sister with

wonderful glamour. "hile %argent5s free brushwor2 recalls Van @yc2 and the great tradition

of portrait painting, it is closely related to the broad handling of the Impressionists. !e 2new

Claude 1onet and after his arrival in ondon in the mid-&++(s painted a number of pictures

in a style that is as much Impressionist as anything else. %ome are landscapes, some informal

studies of interiors with figures. 1any of his portraits are conceived in grand proportions,

fitted to their destinations in e/ually grand houses.

In &B&+ %argent painted *assed which depicts a freeze of 4irst "orld "ar soldiers stumbling

blindfold across a blea2 plain strewn with casualties. The world he had recorded with such

sympathy, the world of the country house and the aristocratic patron had been blown into

pieces. The age of Empire was virtually over.

2.+. $o%ern Art

The popular perception of the difference between traditional art and the new one, more

difficult to understand, went bac2 to the early &Bth century. In the &BD(s writers and

artists began to call themselves an 6avant-garde6, as though they were at the forefront of

an army going into battle. fter the changes in the later part of the &B th century the



Impressionists and ostimpressionists, the late D(th century inherited a need to continue

identifying an avant-garde trend.

ssessing the century as a whole, we may find that some of the laggards were, in their

way, as original as those who proclaimed originality as their sole creed. In any case, in

$ritain the story of 1odernism begins with some fairly ambiguous forays into the field

of innovations. ny history of Impressionism in $ritain must begin with the

achievement of Constable, ?avid Co> and ichard 4arkes Bonin#ton and a study of the

ways in which their wor2 interrelated with that of their contemporaries in 4rance.

This gives a bac2ground to the later stage when Impressionism crossed the Channel.

1any artists fled to ondon during the 4ranco-russian war of &+:(-:&. 1onet was

among them. 1ore significant was the arrival of the painter and printma2er "lphonse

Le#ros <&+;+-&B&&=. !is teaching influenced generations of students with his

progressive academic training in 4rance on peasants sub)ects of Gustave Courbet and

ean- 4rancois 1illet. $y the end of the &++( the full effect of Impressionism was

apparent in the wor2 of 4hillip Wilson Steer <&+A(-&B7D=. !is bright outdoor light and

bro2en dabs of primary colors are wholly in the spirit of the later Impressionism. !e

incorporated a veritable history of English Impressionism into his later wor2. !e

abandoned his strict 4rench techni/ue in the &+B(s and adopted the manner of*ainsborough5s freer sub)ects, then painted landscapes in a style consciously

reminiscent of Constable, and fluid watercolors evo2ing Turner. !is career can be seen

as an attempt to align $ritish painting with the continental avant-garde, while drawing

attention to the significant part in forming that current.

"alter 0ichard %ic2ert <&+A(-&B7D= developed his creative individuality to forge an

entirely personal vision of contemporary 4rench painting, onto the English stoc2.

lthough his father was a @anish, he was born in ondon> he became familiar with

Edgar @egas whom he met in aris in &++; that clin2ed his style. !e was also

influenced by "histler who taught him to etch and refine draughtsmanship and love

ordinary life. In @ieppe, which became something of an English artists5 colony, where

"histler etched, %ic2ert painted buildings 3 the church of %t ierre, the $asilica of %t.

1ar25s 3 ma2ing of them grand, brooding designs that spea2 of the human history those

buildings represent.

1any of his contemporaries ac2nowledged %ic2ert as a leader, and his style 3 luscious

pigment, somber palette, unrhetorical sub)ect matter 3 remained recognizable in much



$ritish ainting throughout the century. !e achieves a balance between the traditional

English love of anecdote and the cool ob)ectivity of the 4rench $onnard and Vuillard

with their predilection for harmonies of close-toned colors given by a rich fluent use of

paint that can be li/uid or brittle according to need.

!is followers, William +icholson <&+:D-&B7B= and William othenstein <&+:D-&B7'=

that are strongly affected by the bold pattern-ma2ing of 4rench e#ponents of the

advertising poster such as 6oulouse Lautrec. $oth were accomplished portrait-painters,

and 8icholson produced a long succession of lusciously painted, beautifully observed

still-lives.

%ic2ert gathered a group of artists that too2 their name as Camden Town *roup, open to

new ideas.

In &B&D o#er 3r* <&+AA-&B;7= organized an e#hibition at the Grafton Galleries in

ondon bringing the wor2s of the ost Impressionists to England for the first time.

Confronted by the paintings of Ce%anne, <an Go#h, Gau#uin, $atisse and 4icasso,

people were horrified, the traditional aim of avant-garde, to shoc2 the middle classes,

was most satisfyingly achieved. $ut many artists responded with e#citement to the

challenges presented by the two e#hibitions. The leading lights of the Camden 6own

Group were )arold Gilman <&+:A-&B&B= 3rederick Spencer Gore <&+:+- &B&7= and

Charles Ginner <&+:+-&B'D=. Their wor2 shows how a generation of painters in their

thirties came to terms with the new 4rench art. Their wor2 is highly colored, with star2

simplifications of drawing and bold )u#tapositions of hue and tone. The Camden Towns

applied that language to sub)ects of a /uintessential Englishness.

parallel movement in %cotland centered round the figures of Samuel ;ohn 4eploe

<&+:&-&B;'= and ;ohn ?uncan 3er#usson <&+:7-&BA&= has mush the same problems of

assimilation though eploe5s still lifes and interiors lusciously painted in sharp blac2,

white and primary colors have a convincing nerve.

nother Impressionist, Gwen ;ohn <&+:A-&B;B= wor2ed on a small scale her palette is

restricted to simple compositions and cool grey colors. "u#ustus ;ohn <&+:B-&BA&= wanted

to shoc2, but he also wanted to e#ercise his ability to produce glamorous portraiture.

$athews Smiths <&+:B-&B'B= painted warm colored, languorous female bodies with

unbridled sensuality 3 most un-English. In the early decades of century he produced some

of the most vigorous 4auvist pictures to be seen.



The outbrea2 of the 4irst "orld "ar in the summer of &B&7 gave visual arts a new, grime

direction and purpose. re-ordering of ideas, a coming to terms with a new climate of

thought was needed. 6he ebel "rt Group too2 the form of a short-lived magazine, aptly

named Blast and its representative W*ndham Lewis <&++D-&B':=, a maveric2 half-merican

writes and paints too2 many of its salient ideas from the 4uturists affirming that modern

civilization with its noise, speed and machinery was the rightful preoccupation of the artist.

The identification of man and machine is the shape of the world of the future. It was

epitomized in a defining wor2 of sculpture by ;acob !pstein, 26he ock ?rill2 . ewis5s ideas

were fully realized in the paintings of ?avid Bomber# <&+B(-&B':=. !e proves that he

absorbed the ideas of the 4uturists and the Cubists. !e uses sub)ect matters that are far from

the conventional, and their treatment unsurprisingly schematic, following aesthetics short of

abstractions.

1ar2 *ertler 1erry-go-round

$ark Gertler <&+B&-&B;B=, olish-ewish e#traction gravitated towards Bloomsbur*.

rimitivism had a crucial effect on his style which tends to the stiff and monumental even

memorable statement is the garishly coloured 1erry-go 0ound in which the twirling, doll-li2e

figures seem trapped and terrified by their pointless, endlessly circling entertainment. @.!.

awrence on seeing it wrote in admiration to *ertler of his 2terrible and dreadful picture6.

The tendency to abstract of the artists of this time is due to the war that suddenly gave the

amorphous concepts about the role of the artist in society, a brutal application. The tas2 of the

artist is no longer abstract. The stress of these years produced some of the most memorable

paintings of the century. The ability of $ritish artists to use the new continental idioms to

distill the essence of their e#perience of war into something wholly aesthetic, transcending

mere reportage, is unmatched by any other group in Europe.

lthough the emembrance )all planned never happened, many drawings and paintings of all

aspects of the war were produced at the commission of the 1inistry of Information. C..W.

+evinson was a friend of 3ilippo $arinetti, the principal theorist of Italian 4uturism and he

published a manifesto, 2<ital !n#lish "rt, in &B&7. s 8evinson, William oberts too had

been a <orticist , as well as one of ewis5 0ebel rtists. !e had developed his own version of

the machine-man of 4uturism and <orticism, influenced by some Cubist wor2 in which the

human body is e#pressed as a comple# tubular forms.

erhaps the most impressive large wor2s commemorating the war are by Stanle* Spencer . In

his painting of the war the astringencies of Vorticism sharpened %pencer5s imagery into



something more than abstract or polemical. !e shows us scenes of gripping immediacy,

brought into focus an acute sense of strangeness of things and an ability to render that

strangeness with a dreamli2e logic. The two big canvases 6ravois arrivin# with wounded at a

?ressin# Station at Smol, $acedonia <&B&B= and the esurrection illustrate his ability to find

bold, stri2ing patterns in the details of real life. The mingling of religious and secular, the

perception of the divine in everyday events are recurrent themes. In his landscapes and

portraits he adopts a more literal style, painting what he sees with almost obsessive attention

details 3 he was an admirer of the re-0aphaelites, as well as of early Italian art.

$y the &BD(s the ferment of new ideas that had bubbled up at the time of the war had settled

into a clear understanding that the new art morally sounder. In due course that sense of moral

6ri#htness6 attached itself particularly to abstraction, which by definition could not be 6about6

anything e#cept itself a state of aesthetic purity that somehow carried with it the implication

of moral purity as well. It was not until &BD(s that any sustained practice in abstraction was

established. In the years between the "orld "ars the abstractionists assumed the roles of

social and political visionaries. There was also a religious strand. In !olland, 4iet $ondrian,

who was interested in theosophy, had spo2en of the power of abstraction to penetrate to the

essence of things, striping away the incidental and the mundane.

Clive Bell, <anessa9s Bell husband urged artists to see2 and paint 2si#nificant form2 and

suggested that a true presentation of the 2pure form2 of an ob)ect enables the viewer to

become aware of its essential reality of *od in everything.

Ben +icholson <&+B7-&B+D= embraced another late &Bth century religious cult, Christian

%cience, which also emphasized an ulterior 2truth2 behind material appearances. !e saw

abstraction as a commentary on the real world, the e#pression of an idea about life.

crucial stepping-store was the abstracted still life that was so typical of Cubist painting. The

salient characteristics of Cubism 3 the brea2ing down of three dimensional forms into

interrelated planes and schematization of color, first in near-monochrome, and later in

)u#taposed bloc2s of strong, often unmi#ed hues 3 helped $en 8icholson refine his sub)ects

into superimposed planes punctuated by isolated masses of color.

$en 8icholson %t. 9ves 3 ?val and %teeple, &B'&.

1uch of 8icholson5s later wor2 is purely abstract, austere in form and color. !ere, however,

he reverts to the landscape themes that inspired him in &BD(s and in particular to %t. 9ves, the

Cornish fishing town in which he found much of the material for his bleed of geometrical

meditation and refined landscape drawing.



There are lin2s between 8icholson and contemporary who rarely practiced pure abstraction

but who was deeply attached to landscape and produced a parallel, highly personal version of

another Continental movement Surrealism, 4aul +ash <&++B-&B7A= was the prime mover of a

thrusting group of artists who undertoo2 to hold the modernist front in the &B;(s. Gnit one

was founded in &B;; and included 8icholson and two important sculptors, )enr* $oore

<&+B;-&B+A= and Barbara )epworth <&B(;-&B:'=.

aul 8ash E/uivalents for the megaliths

$y the &B;(s the art of Samuel 4almer had been rediscovered and the intensity of almer5s

intimate identification with nature, inspired 8ash among many others almer5s fecund stoc2

of corn and swelling moon are transmitted, however, into a more ambiguous vision of a half

prehistoric, half-mechanized landscape in which ancient and modern forces are /uietly at

wor2. The surprise at natural ob)ects was important to the interwar generation. The age of

ob)ect found, a stone or a piece of twisted stic2 found on the beach and 2ept as a domestic

sculpture. The circle around 8icholson, 1oore and !epworth drew continual inspiration from

such chance discoveries and made evident use of them in their wor2. The sense of the

nightmare potential of the natural world, sharpened by the e#perience of the war, comes in

much wor2 of the period. !dward Wadsworth <&++B-&B7B= chose to paint monumental piles of found ob)ects li2e trophies, memorials to the past history of places now silent and deserted.

L.S. Lowr* <&++:-&B:A= also graphed with the ugliness of modern life he did not need to

describe war the industrial towns of 8orthern England provided enough blea2 sub)ects.

$efore and during the war there emerged a new dimension, nostalgia for the England that was

being swept away by so much rapid change. Its archetype e#pression is the wor2 of e>

Whistler <&B('-77= who was 2illed in action in 8ormandy. !is decorations for country houses

in the &B;(a sum up the fading pleasures of the old social order, based on memories of

Claude Lorrain and 0ococo, evo2ing an e#ternal idyll of classical pavilions dotted about a

perfectly landscape world.

The new artistic developments 2nown as 2+eo7romanticism2 3 approaches the English

countryside with a nostalgia sharpened by war and the lessons of %urrealism. ;ohn 4iper,

<&B(;-BD=, ?avid ;ones <&+B'-&B:7=, Avon )itchens <&+B7-&B:B= continue the footsteps of the

?ld 1asters and become representatives of the movement.

In the 8azi times, the despairing nihilism became the 2ey note of much European thin2ing

;ean 4aul Sartre5s E#istentialism, with its claim to help people as Simone de Beauvoir put it,



to 2face horror and absurdit* while retainin# their human di#nit*, to preserve their

individualit*2 , spread abroad a mood of aggressive alienation. The distorted figures of

icasso5s famous protest against the %panish Civil "ar, Guernica <&B;:= e#hibited in ondon,

provided a language in which many artists felt they could e#press their disgust with the world.

Ceri ichards <&B(D-&B:&=, ;ohn Crado>ton <b&BDD= and obert Col8uhoun <&B&7-&BAD=

reflect this influence of 4icasso in wor2 that was often, on the surface, pastoral and lyrical. n

idiosyncratic member of the generation was !dward Burra <&B('-&B:A=, but the disturbing

developments come to a clima# in the paintings of 3rancis Bacon <&B(B-&BBD=. !is art of

drawing seems almost to contradict the passionate matching of the human body that emerges

from his wor2. 9et, the body was also evidently a source of delight form him. !e was one of

the significant members of artists of the time who painted the male figure, because it was an

ob)ect of erotic interest. !e based his paintings on the e#perimental late &Bth century merican

photographer !dward $u*brid#e. !e too2 multiple se/uential photographs recording the

action. $acon pic2ed up the /uasi cinematic aspects of $u*brid#e procedures in his

techni/ue, which involves sweeps of a laden brush that blur and distort the forms, investing

them with apparent motion.

The Cold "ar between "estern and Eastern $loc powers, which lasted until &B+B made

possible the sense of an#iety to be felt through the ensuing decades. The &BA(5s saw a great

increase in national wealth, the spending power of the individual hugely enhanced. The

material world of the commercial artifact came to dominate everyone5s perception of reality.

ir travel, records, TV became available to everyone. $ut drug-ta2ing, which had been

common in $ohemia for a century or more, became modish. The introduction of the

contraceptive pill in &BA; rapidly rendered obsolete traditional constraints in se#ual

behaviour. merican life and culture came to represent a standard to be imitated. merican

service men still stationed in $ritain long after the "ar, helped to naturalize their way of life

films, slang, etc. The merican age in $ritain was announced in the wor2 of the 2Beat2 poets

and novelists round ;ack /eruac and William Burrou#hs, and the 8ew 9or2 %chool of

"bstract 0mpressionist paintin# , led by $ark othko and ;ackson 4ollock . Their paintings are

positive assertions of the energy of creativity, or in 0oth2o5s case, of the spiritual heights and

depths to be plumbed in the contemplation of a subtly colored void.

4atrick )eron <&BD(-&BBB= abandoned the figure sub)ects and still lifes inspired by Bra8ue

and $atisse and started to paint large abstracts often at first 6stripe paintings6, tall pile of

many-colored brush-stro2es. !e lived for much of his life in or near %t. Ives, which had been

home for many of the most perceptive landscapes painters of the pre-war years.



1any painters continued to find inspiration at %t. Ives and developed a tradition of abstraction

thet deserved more recognition. o#er )ilton <&B&&-&B:'=, )enr* 3rost <b. &B&'= are among

the distinguished artists to have wor2ed there since the war. 4eter Lan*on <&B&+-&BA7= was

happy to blend painting and sculpture in a free, e#pensive way that led him naturally to large

abstract wor2s drawing on the characteristics of local landscape.

Peter ;anyon , li%e Path

%t Ives, with its white, slate roofed cottages and narrow streets, intricately winding harbor

front and wide bays, seems to have possessed an e#traordinary capacity to lead artists forward

in search for a language to e#press their strong sense of these elo/uent surroundings. <ictor

4asmore <&B(+-B+= visited the town in &B'( and about that time bro2e decisively with

representation, abandoning his delicately colored, poetic Thames scenes and socially modeledfigure studies for pure abstractions. !e adopted the new international language of non-

representational art paintings, collages, relief sculptures, etc. In &B;: he had been a founder

of the !uston oad School with William Coldstream <&B(+-&B+:= and Claude o#ers <&B(:-

&B:B= in an attempt to get away from the uncertainty about abstraction and representation.

Coldstream was much affected by the social problems raised by the economic depression of

the ;(5s. !e felt that a truly left-wing art must be generally accessible, not rarefied

intellectually of abstraction.

?ther masters that bestrode modernism and traditionalism were Stanle* Spencer and +orman

Blame* <&B&7-D(((=. They showed a profound religious involvement.

<anessa Bell and ?uncan Grant, in the later part of their careers no longer avant-garde, made

large-scale murals for $erwic2 church, near Charleston, their house under the %usse# @owns.

In ent, at the little county parish of Challoc2, ;ohn Ward <b &B&+= e#ecuted a lyrical series of

Scenes from the Life of Christ <&B'+= set in the local countryside and with a cast of local

people.

4or many years the walls of the 0oyal cademy showed paintings by Carrel Wei#ht <&B(+-

B:= which gave voice to a more uneasy, late D(th-century spirituality, setting events of a

vaguely transcendental nature in the drab landscapes of suburban ondon. In both merica

and England a wealth of messages from the street 3 round signs, advertisements, newspaper

photographs 3 was finding its way into the images of what /uic2ly became 2nown as 4op "rt .

?il paint did not go out of fashion, but the new, industrially produced acrylic, with its clean,

smooth te#ture and easy application, offered an appropriately shiny alternative.



%ir 1athew ewth 8ude, &B&A

In the mid &B'(s 4eter Bleak <b &(;D= began to incorporate postcards and magazine covers

into his pictures, creating a hybrid of painting and collage 3 a techni/ue that has its roots in

Cubism. op rt embodied the tensions of the new nglo merican culture. $lea25s 6Girls

and their )ero !lvis&2 <&B'B= painted in acrylic, records images borrowed from newspapers

and popular magazines to overwhelming $ritish enthusiasm for merican commercial music,

0oc2 5n5 0oll and Elvis resley. The self-conscious youthfulness of artist and accoutrements is

representative of the moment. The movement received also a powerful impetus from the

friendship of the English .B. /ita1 and merican ?avid )ockne* that adopted a stri2ing

transformation. %meared surfaces li2e old urban walls, covered with random graffiti, became

the bac2 drops sometimes constitute the entire picture. Their gentle irony made way to a

eter $lea2 *irls and their !ero <Elvis= <&B'B=

fiercer satire in the wor2 of "llen ;ones <b &B;:= obsessed by the use of the female figure in

commercial art and se# industry. The obvious erotic purpose is satirized significantly by

faceless figures, with gaudy color and slic2 outlines. ichard )amilton and 4atrick Caulfield

ma2e their irony on the monotony of the surroundings in a world of mass-production.

Gnder the umbrella of the so-called School of London in :(s many of the artists of the time

have been grouped. Leon /ossoff, 3rank "uerbach derive their style from the ondon

sub)ects 3people and landscapes.



4ran2 uerbach rimrose !ill -&BA:-A+> "uerbach is concerned with inherent or unseen

structures. )e reveals the structures which are also l*ricall* colorful and

e>press an open air of formal landscapes where Londoners take e>ercise and fl*

kites or model airplanes.

ll developments match the wor2 of /enneth $artin <&B('-&B+7= and his wife <&B(:-&BAB=

that find their roots in $ondrian and ussian Constructivism. They build up their

compositions by means of mathematical calculations, placing minimal mar2s-lines, bloc2 or

spaces on the canvas not as a conse/uence of aesthetic decisions but following a carefully

planned se/uence of 6sums6. Their patterns are cool and dry but surprisingly highly

impressive.

Brid#et ile* <b &B;&= has become a single minded $ritish e#ponent of the international ?p

rt movement that developed in the &BA(s and :(s. This one was an approach to abstraction

that concentrated on rigid but subtle geometry and optically startling color combinations. %he

began painting in blac2 and white alone, titillating the eye with finely modulated stripes or

dots that seem to flic2er fade or fold out of view as one loo2s. !er cool, hard ob)ectivity too2

her so far as to employ assistants in the actual application of paint the artist5s personalities,

and all representational reference, are deliberately eliminated to an e#tent that has been

unusual in $ritish abstraction.

t the opposite pole is the highly sensuous painting of )oward )od#kin <b. &B;D= who has

sustained the native tradition of abstraction on representation. The canvases of 6herese

=ulton <b. &B';= are inundated by tides of rippling paint, floods of rich, sober color

illuminated by intermittent flashes of fitful light.

Christopher Le Brun <b. &('&= evo2es the transcendental by representational elements of symbolist favorites "agner and @ante. The abstract merges into the musical e#pressionist.

!oward !odg2in 3 Chez 1a# 3 &B(: still life, memories, emotional situations seen thorou#h

the e*es of memor* K transformed usin# the traditional vocabular* of paintin#

Lucian 3reud <b. &BDD= came from Vienna in the &B;(s> his wor2 breathes Surrealism and

+eue Saclichkeit , shot through with the tense an#iety of the early post war years. !e painted



portraits that set force human psychology, following the wor2 of his uncle %igmund 4reud.

!is e#ample has stimulated interest in the human figure painting of the %urrealist landscapes

and interiors of Stephen $c/enna <b.&B;B= and the fantasies of /en /liff <&B;B-D((&= whose

childish style paintings can be associated with *rimm-li2e horror tales. The children stories

have else stimulated 4aula e#o, born in isbon in &B;'- who brings into her paintings an

Iberian feeling for the macabre.

en liff andscape with horse <&BDD=: a return of ma#ic and fairl* land, *et it does not

i#nore the dark side of thin#s. )is fairl*7tale landscape is peopled with demons as well as

enchanted beasts and blossomin# trees.

In recent decades the boundaries between the various media have become increasingly

blurred photograph, films, video are all used in mi#ed-media creativity. Conceptual art

tended to steal the limelight, notably among the 2Brit pack2 , a highly publicized group of

6enfants terrible6 who emerged in the B(s reinventing the old techni/ues of the avant-garde

bizarre incongruities, everyday ob)ects or pornography are deployed to e#plore the diverse

e#perience of modern life. There is a steady undercurrent of ironic borrowing, a post-modern

love of deconstructing traditional concepts and methods of wor2ing.

4eter ?oi# <b &B'B= reverts to the recognizable language of the landscape with figures playing with natural against architectural forms. Gar* )ume <b&BAD= revives some aspects of

the op movement of attention-grabbing colors and shapes of advertising.

The paintings of 3iona ae <b &BA;= can be read as deconstructions of many D( th century

movements and allude to 4icasso, Bacon, 4ollock . %he ta2es the possibilities of abstraction to

their limit. %tarting from a very different position, )enr* Saville <b. &B:(= ta2es 4reud5s

anatomies of the human frame as step further, presenting her female nudes in $robdingnagian

close-up, distorted and sometimes deformed li2e mutants.

ainting continues to attract practitioness. bstraction pursues its mission to probe the more

ineffable of thought and e#perience, while the figurative tradition is dealt with in terms of

individuals and their interraction to oddness.

searching engagement with human reality is visual for the recharging of the batteries of art,

and then can be no end to that encounter.

III. he British ar%en

*ardening is a special English form of love. Their common denominator is that it has always

been cherished, sometimes by several generations, having always a story to tell. %tone or



bric2 walls and terraces enriched with masses and lichens, old trees and hedges, show changes

of style from generation to generation, reflecting architectural fashions, horticultural and

botanical developments, and economic, cultural and social changes.

t the beginning of the story, the flowers that the people used to grow in their gardens could

be listed on one page. Today, The 0oyal !orticultural %ocietyFs -O Encyclopedia of *arden

lants presents more that &'.((( plants. They are the result of a thousand year of gardening,

of search and development, all catering for the English passion for plants.

There is little evidence about gardening activity before the 8orman Con/uest, but there is

only one e#ception the 0oman alace at 4ish $ourne in %usse#. The better-off $ritons that

may have emulated their rulers probably wor2ed its large, elaborate and formal garden.

?ur 2nowledge about gardens and gardening after the end of the 0oman administration in the

early fifth century comes mainly from northern European sources. In the @ar2 ges, the

period between the end of 0oman occupation and the 8orman invasion, the average English

manFs house was a hovel. !is garden could only be a very small plat in front of his cottage, to

help him struggle for survival as he grew a few colewort <cabbage, 2ales=, onions, roots, peas

and beans, or even some small room behind to grow one or two fruit trees. The monotonous

diet might have been supplemented with additional herbs, berries and fruit from wild places.

The more prosperous families might own a pig in a po2e and a few hens, duc2s and geese.

cow was rare.

The pattern of settlement and land tenure established in the 1iddle ges is still recognizable

today. Cottages have front gardens divided by a path connecting the cottage to the lane, still

sometimes planted with neat rows of cabbages, onions and beans. The traditional layout of

front and bac2 gardens has not only survived in the country, it has also been adopted in the

town, in rows of terraced houses> and in the suburbs, in semi-detached and detached villas set

bac2 from avenues.

The forest was sometimes a dar2 and sinister place, but also a source of food, fuel and

building materials.

In the 8orman Con/uest period, forests were ta2en into royal ownership and managed for

royal sport of hunting deer and wild boar. !ares, swans and peacoc2s were also fair game.

!unting became a way of ta2ing e#ercise in the fresh air, an opportunity to show off and to

practice s2ills of mar2smanship. ll this is evident in the J@evonshireH series of tapestries

depicting hunting scenes, made at rras in the &7D(Fs to &77(Fand now displayed in the

Victoria and lbert 1useum in ondon.



In the twelfth century, the forest became the Jsanctuary and special delight of 2ingsH.

<0ichard 4iznigel, Thomas $ec2etFs cler2 and biographer=. ny infringements of his ma)estyFs

rights over Jvert and venisonH <trees and beasts= were punishable. s the law was bitterly

resented, the outlaws as the legendary 0obin !ood and his bard in 8ottinghamFs %herwood

4orest became fol2 heroes. Vast acreages were fenced in for royal hunting forests, and lodges

were built where 2ings and /ueens and their courtiers could eat, drin2 and rest. !enry III is

deer par2 at Claredon, near %alisbury, was the largest in England. The royal residences

demonstrated the power and wealth of the 2ing.

s peace and prosperity increased, people began to appreciate the benefits of the countryside

and to develop love for trees, flowers and the refreshing greens of the landscape.

lbertus 1agnus, Covent of $ollstadt, @ominican churchman and scholar of adua

Gniversity, give advice on the site and lying out of small pleasure gardens writing in the &; th

century.

?n high days and holidays, ondoners headed out of town. ?n 1ay @ay, 4iz %tephen wrote,

Jevery man, e#cept impediment, would wal2 into the sweet meadows and green woods, there

to re)oice their spirits with beauty and savor of sweetie flowers and with the harmony of

birdsH. 9oung men and girls would go to the woods, accompanied by a group of musicians, to

gather 1ay blossom. They used it, bound in wreaths, to decorate the windows and doors of

their cottages. The celebration of the *oddess of 4lowers included archery displays, with

contestants dressed up as 0obin !ood and his men and processions of young men with

garlands on their hands of ivy leaves and hawthorn, girls in blue 2irtles, wearing primrose

garlands and leading a cow decorated with ribbons and flowers. t Christmas people still go

through the same rituals of decoration as in the 1iddle ges.

$ut the royal and the landowners families were seldom in one place for long en)oying the

pleasure of gardens, as in danger, they moved from one fortified castle to another. gainst the

odds, several royal pleasure gardens were created. Their image can be seen in the painted

images of illuminated manuscripts and $oo2s of !ours, the woven and embroidered scenes

on tapestries and from written evidences in the 0oyal ipe 0olls, records of the 2ingFs wor2s

and contemporary chronicles. These gardens were enclosed inside the fortified walls of castles

and modeled on the earlier gardens of monasteries and convents.

The monasteries were virtually the only secure places after the 8orman Con/uest. Their

architecture and layout, form and content were of 0oman e#traction, through the Christian

0oman Church brought by the 8orman Con/uerors.



drawing blueprint dating from the early ninth century was found at %t. *all in %witzerland.

That plan was adapted for numerous sites in 8orthern Europe, including the twelfth century

abbey at 4ounterraud in 4rance and eterborough bbey in England.

The %t. *all model provided everything necessary to sustain a self-sufficient community.

There was space for domestic animals, greenery, threshing floors, mill, ba2ery, brewery, beds

planted with vegetables and herbs, orchard that served also as a cemetery.

There was also an infirmary <hospital= garden that provided medicinal herbs and plants

needed for domestic and medicine uses, as the boundaries between medicine, religion and

magic were blurred.

In the fourteenth century, ohannes 1irfield of %t. $artholomewFs %mith field gives the

following advice JTa2ing the herb cin/uefoil and, while collecting it, saying a aternoster on

behalf of the patient, and boiling it in a new )ar with some of the roaster the patient is destined

to drin2, and if the water be red in colour after this boiling, then the patient will dieH.

The cloister court was planted with nothing but grass and perhaps some evergreen tree or

shrub. The plain green layers were considered an important source of spiritual refreshment,

symbolizing renewal and everlasting life.

rofane gardens, made for worldly pleasure, began to appear in literature and painting in the

age of chivalry, when 2nights )ousted and troubadours sang of love. The sensual delights of a

garden planted with sweet roses and lilies, with clear water flowing from a fountain, were

valued even more in contrast to the dirt and stench of ban/ueting halls, where bones and other

scraps of food lay festering on the floor and men as well as dogs often urinated against the

walls.

Islamic culture bought sophisticated gardens and advanced horticultural 2nowledge from

$aghdad to %pain where the rabs ruled from :&& to &7BD. They made gardens following the

ersian patterns. They were divided into four /uarters, as the Gniverse in the $oo2 of

*enesis, separated by four great rivers in the form of a cross. The central pavilion was shaded

by trees and roses and there was always a separable and splash of a running water gushing

from a fountain or spring. In Europe, and England cruciform pattern formed by the four rivers

of Eden came to signify ChristFs cross, and the water symbolizes purification, rebirth, and

eternal life. 4lowers were also JChristianizedH, as the red rose became stained with the blood

of martyrs, while lilies and violet became the flowers of the Virgin 1ary. ily is still called

the 1adonna lily. 1uch of our 2nowledge about gardens is the 1iddle ges come from the

paintings and woodcuts made to illustrate the allegory of love 2nown as Le oman de la

ose, one of the most popular wor2s of medieval literature. It was completed in about &D:(-:



and it is thought to be the wor2 of two authors Guillaume de Lorris and ;ean de $eun. The

story tells of a loverFs /uest for a perfect rose that he is allowed to pic2 only when he has

overcome various obstacles. detailed 4lemish painting &7+' - gives a clear picture of a

wealthy noblemanFs garden at that time

It shows a garden enclosed by a strong stonewalls. ?nce inside the garden, one could pass

through an area laid out with rectangular raised beds, shaded by fruit trees. t the centre of the

garden there is an ornate light 3 sided formation with water spouting from lionsF heads into a

circular stone pool. The stone rim of the pool is )oined with metal rivets and straight 3 sided

rill carries the water away through an arched grille in the garden wall. Inside the boundary

wall there is an open wooden fence with climbing plants trained on it. 4ashionably dressed

young men and women are having a musical party. ?ne man with a dashing feathered hat is

playing a lute, and two of three ladies are singing from song-sheets. %imilar illustrations are

included in JGnicornH tapestries in the Cloisters 1useum in 8ew 9or2. They show a flowery

carpet of such density and variety that the grass can hardly be seen.

@ifferent games were used to be played in the garden. si#teenth century tapestry shows the

game J La $ain ChaudeH, 2nown in England as J!ot Coc2lesH. ?ne person is blindfolded and

another hits her on the hand on the bac2. %he has to guess whose Jhot hand it isH.

The war of the two roses <ancaster family 3 the red rose, and 9or2 family 3 the white rose=

ended by the marriage of Elisabeth of 9or2, daughter of Edward IV to $olimbro2e, who

became !enry VII. !e made a symbolic affirmation of this union by choosing a double red

and white rose as a new royal emblem.

The medieval symbol of power, the rose, has been adopted by sundry organizations including

in the twentieth century, $ritainFs abour arty. "hile %cotland has it thistle and "ales its

lee2, !enry VIIFs Tudor rose remains the emblem of England.

In the time of the e#travagant consumption of !enry VIII, !enry VIIFs son, the surest way to

succeed at his Court was to follow his e#ample of ostentations display. !e set about a costly

and ambitions building programme, in !ampton Court including lodgings for his family and

elaborate gardens.

The gardens became enclosures to create places apart and safe from the world outside. They

e#pressed love for comple# geometrical ornament also found in the new architecture, on

plaster ceilings and carved paneled walls and in fashionable clothes, with patterns woven into

brocade or embroidered overs2irts, doublets and sleeves.



JnotsH became a novelty for gardens. They were rectangular beds planted with interlaced

linear patterns of low, evergreen plants such as germander, hyssop, thrift, santolina, and later,

bo#. %ome were e#tremely elaborate, others /uite simple. not gardens are the first regarded

as uni/uely English. The interstices of the pattern were filled in with flowers or with coloured

gravels, sands, bric2 dust, coal or seashells. The 2not would also be a simple, symmetrical

pattern of flowerbeds outlined with evergreen edging plants.

@uring ElisabethFs reign, peace and prosperity led to an increase in foreign trade and travel.

Influences from Italy, 4rance and 8etherlands were assimilated and incorporated into a

confident English building style. Important amounts of money were spent on construction and

up 2eep of the gardens as well as the houses.

%uccessful statesmen, politicians and courtiers of the time made their route in politics by

means of a career in law. Thomas 1oore involved in European thought and art, wrote, in his

Gtopia, published in &'&A, about the inhabitants of a utopic communist community they have

vineyards, 6all manner of fruit, herbs and flowers, so pleasant, and so well furnished, and so

finely 2ept, that I never saw thing neither more fruitful nor better trimmed in any place6.

Towns, ondon in particular, were e#panding rapidly under the TudorFs. The anti/uary ohn

%tow in his J%urvey of ondon and "estminster6 &'B+ wrote about the 'enclosure of the

fields for Gardens wherein are builded man* fa*re summer houses, and as in other places of

the Suburbs, some of them not so much for use or profite, as for shewe and pleasure(.

ands were enclosed to ma2e gardens for new men. Thomas Cromwell, a devious, ruthless

but successful politician, who presided over the @issolution of the 1onasteries, had his

neighborFs house dug out, without warning, placed it on rollers and moved it further from his

boundary so that he could e#tend his garden.

$y the second half of Elisabeth IFs reign, most towns were pleasant places to live in. 8ew

buildings too2 place mostly outside the city walls and each cottage occupied a generous

individual plats, not in row or terraces, and old maps show a pattern of business 3 li2e

rectangular beds in each garden, with an occasional arbor, orchard or pond. 8obody lived

more than a short wal2 from open countryside. The well-farmed fields, carefully managed

woodland or close 3 cropped deer par2 were the pictures that people li2ed to see. It was the

product of a successful rural economy and a particular pattern of land tenure, uni/uely

English.

The urban merchant or tradesman had large, modern, comfortable houses, with large glass

windows symmetrically laid out, with productive gardens. They were )oints of venison, beef,

bacon and mutton in the larder, )ellies, preserves and pic2les in the stillroom, fish in the fish



ponds and wire in the cellar. *ames were sometimes played in the garden, including bowls,

tennis, fives, fencing and archery.

*entlemen were connoisseurs of art and literature, or were of philosophical or scientific bent.

4o#es and badgers were occasionally hunted and hare coursing was popular. @ogs were used

in the chase and it may be at this time that the proverb Jhe cannot be a gentleman who lovth

not a dogH. This was the life that newly rich farmers aspired to. The J@issolution of the

1onasteriesH, carried out between &';A and &'7( made it even easier to become a country

gentleman. It provided the opportunity to purchase Church property from the Crown, to build

houses and organize gardens. They built to last, timber being replaced by local stone, or bric2,

giving to the landscape a distinctive loo2. Their gardens were practical and down to earth,

logic dictating a rectangular enclosure, walled or hedged, immediately in front of the house, to

be admired from windows and terrace. It might be subdivided by paths into /uarters, with a

central fountain, sundial or other features. The paths were graveled or sanded and

occasionally turfed or carpeted with scented herbs.

There also might be a 2not made with interlacing low hedges of lavender, rosemary, hyson or

bo#, with coloured gravel or saved in the interstices.

arger, more ambitions gardens had mounts and terraced wal2s around the perimeter. The

alleys designed for e#ercise in all weathers were sometimes elaborate, roofed wooden

JgalleriesH or cloisters, rather than simple tunnels. They also had a ban/ueting house to end a

meal with the dessert. The gardenFs management was considered womenFs wor2. The diary

left by ady !obby, written between &''B and &A(' describes her drying fruits, ma2ing

/uince )elly and damson )am, drying rose leaves, preparing syrups and candied sweetmeats

and distilled cordials. $ut the orchard, bringing the gap between garden and farm, seems

always to have been the husbandFs responsibility rather than the housewifeFs.

In the middle ages, gardening 2nowledge was passed from one generation to the ne#t by word

of month and be demonstration. 1onasteries were centres of learning and mon2s were able to

read and copy classical atin te#ts, including linyFs descriptions of plants and gardening

techni/ues, but there were no printed boo2s and the vast ma)ority of people could not read.

Even 2ings and /ueens often needed a secretary or cler2 to read their letters to them, and write

the answers. The great leap forward in the dissemination of 2nowledge came with "illiam

Cla#ton5s printing press, set up at "estminster in &7::. This was followed by a rapid increase

in literacy, as a result of a stable, prosperous economy. In &':: Thomas Tus2er published '"

)undredth Good 4ointes of )usbandries( with advice for farming but it also supplied plenty

of information on gardening addressed specifically to the housewife. In &'A+ Thomas !ill



published J1ost $rief and leasant Treatise followed by the *ardeners abyrinth6 by

@idymus 1ountaine and then by the 6General )istoric of 4lantes6 by ohn *erard.

%ubtle changes appeared in the development of gardenFs concept during the reign of ames I

and Charles I in the seventeenth century. 0eligious and literary symbolism had vanished

almost completely from the garden. The ?issolution of the $onasteries had destroyed gardens

with Christian themes designed for good prayer and contemplation. Instead it provided an

opportunity for discreet amorous dalliance within its arbors and behind its hedges. The garden

became a symbol of the ownerFs wealth, power and culture.

*ardening became a recreation, a passion in some cases, for many of the aristocracy and

gentry. The political situation forced a leisured rural life on those reluctant to ta2e sides during

the civil war, on 0oyalists and Catholics during CromwellFs rotectorate and on

arliamentarians and uritans immediately after the 0estoration. *entlemen developed an

interest in and 2nowledge of new and rare flowering plants. $ut in many cases it was the

orchard rather than the flower garden that captured the aristocrat imagination. $en ohnson

celebrated the orchards at ens !urst lace in ent in his poem J6o 4ens )urst H <&A&A=

6hen hath th* orchard fruit, the #arden flowers,

4resh as the air and new as are the hours,

The early cherry, with the later plum,

3i#, #rape, and 8uince, each in his time doth comeM

The blushing apricot and woolly peach

!ang on thy walls that every child may reach.

The pleasure of a garden was emphasized, but gardens also continued to be an important

source of useful plants and food. The boundary between gardening and husbandry was

blurred, and many of the increasing number of boo2s available offered advice on both fronts.

1ost of the gardens were also able to supply their familyFs 4riday fish from domestic sources.

ohn 0eaFs and "illiam awsonFs boo2s were )ust two among many gardening boo2s

published on the seventeenth century. The latter is chatty, easy-going style and sound practical

2nowledge made it very popular, as they went into many editions. It included diagrams

showing patterns for 2nots.

Thoughtful prose writers on the sub)ect of the ideal garden included %ir "illiam Temple who

began to e#press his philosophy of gardening by speculating whether Ja regular garden layout

was the only option or even the best optionH. In JElements of rchitectureH <&AD7=, %ir !enry

"otton, a well-traveled diplomat who lived for some time in Venice, suggested, in the



seventeenth century terms, a twentieth century garden, of lu#uriant informal planting within a

formal framewor2.

ohn Evelyn, diarist and author of J%ylva or a @iscourse of 4orest TreesH, was a 2een garden

ma2er and wrote that gardens should be made Js near as possibly to the *arden of EdenH,

and that the layout of a garden should Jagree with the nature of the place, anticipating

le#ander @opeFs ma#im Jin all let nature never be forgotH.

In the late seventeenth century owners were so proud of their houses and gardens and the

status they conferred, that they commissioned paintings to record them. Earlier, fragments of

real gardens could sometimes be glimpsed in the bac2 ground of portraits and fantasy or

imaginary gardens were seen in illustrations to boo2s or pictures showing the life of the !olly

4amily. $ut now, pride of possession demanded portraits of gentlemenFs gardens. rtists

devised bird’s e*e techni8ues to show the e#tent and grandeur of garden. ainting s showed

grand carriages approaching the house, deer and horses grazing, and well-dressed people

strolling all status symbols.

$ut the bucolic ideal came naturally to people educated in the classics and familiar with the

poetry of Virgil and !orace. It filtered down to yeoman farmers, merchants and prosperous

tradesmen and the generally accepted goal for an ambitions man became a country house with

a small estate. Enormous numbers of houses were build, with gardens, constructed on lines

that become traditional and made EnglandFs great glory. 8evertheless, this is the time when

the great English love affair with plants began. $otanists, collectors, nurserymen, and

discerning garden owners developed a pool of 2nowledge and developed gardening

2nowledge to a great significance for the future.

The early decades of the eighteenth century can be considered as the clima# of the fashion for

geometric formality in gardening. Geor#e London and )enr* Wise <were urveyors of

*eometry=, together with the 4rench "ndr@ Le +Ntre <&A&;-&:((= were the urveyors of

*eometry. They wor2ed for royalty, and aristocracy, laying out gardens at !ampton Court and

ensington alace. Their clients could be sure that they were buying fashion and the best

possible taste. The fashion was for grass plats, with or without flower borders around them.

Careful attention was paid to planting plans, using materials from famous nursery. The result

was a graded effect, with the tallest plants in the middle and the lowest on the outside.

The fashion for gardens in the @utch style came to England with William and $ar*, both been

gardeners. The @utch garden was designed for limited spaces and made greater use of water,

as it was more domestic and perhaps more suited for the English temperament and way of life.



It is a supremely harmonious composition of water grass wal2s and hedges, with long straight

canals, that could be delightful ornamental as well as practical features.

The 4rench and @utch styles more or less part of a formal mainstream, nevertheless showed

subtle changes from what had gone before. $ut the Italian style was more innovative, and

radical changes were to follow. The formal geometric style gardening began to seem dowdy.

The 4rench style was designed to reflect despotism, centralized government, absolute control,

so the gardens made at Versailles went out of favor. 1en of culture began to feel their way

towards a style that e#pressed $ritish democratic principles and freedom, as it was then

understood, with all its imperfections. 8egative ideas decrying formal gardens were replaced

by positive new ideas for bringing gardens closer to nature. 8ew gardens were planned, or old

ones changed, to give views of the e#isting farm, woods, water.

The second revolutionary event was the designing of the land scope itself attempting to

increase its beauty.

8o one was more enthusiastic for change than "le>ander 4ope and )orace Walpole. Their

J!a-!aH garden concept was that, when the Jcommon peopleH came across a sun2en fence, or

fosse, they e#claimed !a-ha-ha to e#press their surprise at finding a sudden and unperceived

chec2 to their wal2.

The dissemination of new garden styles was much helped by tourism. 4ashions in flowers

were changing too. n ever-increasing supply of novelties from abroad meant that many old

favorites were grown stale. 0ed lily turned to be a vulgar flower, as well as peonies, daffodils

and tulips that are the Jmore ordinary sorts of flowersH2=.

$y the middle of the eighteenth century, gardening was not only recognized as a pleasurable

leisure occupation, but also an intellectual pursuit.

Town dwellers began to spend more and more time in the countryside, as improved roads

made it increasingly accessible. The introduction of the turnpi2e system let to roads being

2ept in better repair, so that, although )ourney became more e#pensive they were more

comfortable and much speedier. ll these contributed to a liberal interchange of ideas about

farming, gardening and landscaping. The solemn *othic style gardens converged also a

political message to those who were aware of such things. The adoption of the *othic style

implied re)ection of the classical style preferred by the wig sympathizers who admired the

republican politics of ancient 0ome. $y contrast, *othic e#pressed a preference for native

English /ualities.

D = ohn 0ea 4amous garden designer in the &+th century.



@ionysus "illiams, a member of the 0oyal %ociety, introduced the style that became 2nown

as J0ococoH, consisting of typical curves and scrolls e#ecuted with a free, light touch. The

term is a composite of two 4rench words rocaille <roc2wor2 or pebble wor2 and co8uille

meaning shell. *rottos, shell rooms and the li2e are typical rococo elements. The lightness

and elegance of some gothic garden buildings, with pointed arches, tracery, slender turrets and

pinnacles are also characteristic. The same delicacy of touch, with a dash of fantasy, also

/ualifies chinoiserie, as found in pavilions, bridges, trelliswor2 and fences. The rococo style

represented by these elements is best understood by loo2ing at the water colour paintings by

Thomas 0obins of gardens. They show what the gardens loo2ed li2e and framed with sinuous

borders of flowers, birds, butterflies and shells. The rococo style of garden was transitional

between the formal, geometric style and the free, landscape style.

The surrounding landscape was wild, romantic and beautiful, with pictures/ue views of the

ruined medieval castles or copies of different 2nown monuments, such as the *ree2 temples

or the Egyptian symbols. The ground sloped down where a river flowed and that was altered

to fall through cascades and pools.

$y the end of the eighteenth century all the mud cottages had disappeared and even the

poorest people now lived in bric2 or stone cottages that had upstairs bedrooms and glass in

the windows. Grban development also made provision for gardens. The elegant stone facades

of the houses, the terraces, crescents and parades met stone pavements in uninterrupted

harmony. $ut there were invariable bac2 gardens.

$etween &+(& and &+;& the population of England increased from B million to )ust under &A

million. Grban e#pansion was sometimes accompanied by rural decay. eople used to spend

money for gardens in the suburbs, not in the countryside.

In &+;D Edward $udding, an engineer in te#tile factory patented a revolutionary invention

the first mechanical lawnmower.

ohn Claudius ondon ma2es a meticulous detailed advice and information on garden to the

readers of his '6he Gardner’s $a#a%ine(. !e considers the purposes of a garden to be 'a

work of art to displa* the taste and wealth of the owner(. !e was also the first who started the

market #ardens and private #ardens. *reat /uantities of greenhouse plants in pots were

e#posed for sale for the first time in the mar2et place.

?ne category of garden described by ondon as 'detached from their houses2 , situated

usually in the suburbs, generally connected together and separated by hedges were

presumably what we now 2now as allotments. They are thousands of them nowadays and they

are cultivated in the evenings by single men, such as cler2s and )ourneymen.



The typical English garden of the early Ith century occupies a steep 7 - acre site, with a

loan in front of the house and steps leading to vantage point. The visitor is drawn to an upper

level with a terrace wal2, leading from the house to a rustic wooden summerhouse.

"ordsworth#= was one of the most loving and active gardener of his time. !is advice about

gardening and landscaping were published in the same magazine.

fter the geographical discoveries, a new era of botanical and horticultural research came.

"rchibald $en%ies, a botanist and a surgeon, ;oseph Banks, passionately interested in botany,

and unusually 2nowledgeably went to the new lands on the 6 ?iscover* with Captain Geor#e

<ancouver2 Fs survey e#pedition of the acific coast of 8orth merica. @uring five year

)ourney they collected and catalogued plants from different places such as the monke* pu%%le

tree, redwood tree, ?ou#las fir, =re#on #rape, vine maple, flowerin# currant, e## flower that

later became indispensable for the $ritish gardens. 8urseries and seed merchants lost no time

in mar2eting the new plants and gardeners greeted them ecstatically. In the early nineteenth

century, there were comparatively few plants available, so anyone seeing a yellow rose, a

wisteria, a rhododendron, or a free peony in flower for the first time, would find it irresistible.

8o wonder that the gardening style, which gave individual plants the starring roles, was first

in fashion and the precious rarities were displayed with pride. The shape of beds became freer

and less symmetrical. This is also the beginning of a gardening style which would lead, in due

course, to the creation of matchless woodland gardens and e#otic land scope gardens.

Then, others li2e the member of the 3o> famil*, the ;ames Batman, $ar* ussell $itford’s or

William Bobbitt developed the scientific research on the e#otic plants and the wor2 on

adapting them to the new environment. $ecause there were more plants to choose from, with

bigger, brighter flowers, cottage gardens began to produce the Jroot of colour H that would

have such appeal in Victorian paintings of idyllic cottages on calendars and postcards.

@omination over nature was celebrated triumphantly and a rigid geometric structure that was

imposed on the garden landscape. Gndulating ground was made level to form rectangular

enclosures, walled or surrounded by immaculately trimmed hedges. lants were controlled

and manipulated to form arbitrary, manmade shaped and patterns, emulating those found

indoors on ceilings, paneling and fabrics.

$oth Tudor and Victorian gardeners had a passion for elaborate patterns, but for the Tudors,

opportunities for e#pressing their love for colour were limited. There is no doubt about the

vigor and confidence of the Victorian gardens. It can be seen and marveled at today in gardens

where nineteenth century plans have been meticulously restored. *randiose schemes were

; = "illiam "ordsworth - writer.



indicators of the ?wnerFs statute. 0othschild head gardener declared that a s/uireFs garden

would need &(,((( bedding plants> a baronetFs D(,((( an earlFs ;(,((( and a du2eFs garden,

'(,(((.

Taste in design and planting has moved a long way from formal bedding partly because of the

enormous e#pense involved. $ut it is a style 2ept alive by a few urban par2s departments, the

cost being )ustified as a tourist attraction. 1any public par2s and pleasure gardens had their

origin in the Victorian era. In those days, public par2s bridged the chasm between the

comple# and e#pensive bedding schemes laid out for great landowners and industrial

magnates for their private en)oyment, and the small plats gardened by the rest of the

population.

eople who gardened on a small scale in city, suburban and cottage gardens limited their

plans according to the space they had. Gntil recently, the tradition of Victorian bedding was

alive in small gardens. In fairly typical streets of semidetached houses with small front

gardens, the owners would vie with each other to produce the healthiest plants with the

biggest flowers, the greenest, most wood free turf and the sharpest edges to their beds. The

spring display might show h*acinths and pansies, wallflowers and tulips. In summer, there

were patterns of mari#olds and be#onias, and mi#ed tapestries of petunias, #eraniums and

bus* lassies.

The Victorians wanted their gardens to be both neat and gaudy. It enlives the grey English

climate, and is, perhaps, well suited to the English character. Today, only some gardens in the

terrace retain their seasonal colour. The rest have been graveled over to ma2e par2ing spaces.

The flowers have moved up into hanging bas2ets and windows bo#es.

s urban life became increasingly crowded and unpleasant, it became more and more

important for the ordinary people - bric2layers, twist - hands, te#tile wor2ers, shoema2ers,

tailors and mechanics 3 to be able to escape to an allotment whenever time permitted. They

grew there cabba#e, lettuce, rhubarb and celer* as well as flowers. The allotment 3 holders

would visit their plots on the way to wor2, on the way to home and in their dinner hour

between twelve and one. Even wor2ers without access to allotment could be successful

florists. The hobby needed time and s2ill rather than space, and could be practiced in a small

bac2 yard or even on a windowsill. 1any prizewinners had secret formulas for achieving

success. n auricular glower was persuaded in &+&' to part with his recipe of compost.

4lorist had their own literature, their earliest J BibleH being ames 1addoc2Fs 4loristFs

@irectory of -, followed by a '4ractical 6reatise on the culture of the Carnation( , in2,



uricular, olyanthus and other 4lowers by Thomas !ogg, which went through si# editions

between &+D( and &+;B. eriodicals were the 4loricultural Cabinet and 4loristFs 1agazine.

In the later part of the nineteenth century and the early part of twentieth, a change was ta2ing

place. *arden ma2ers stopped testing new ideas and started loo2ing bac2, see2ing inspiration

in gardens of the past. @ifferent designers had different ideas. 4or "illiam 1orris and his

admirers, it was an "rthurian dream of a garden where 2nights courted languid ladies or

suitors battled through cruel briars to the %leeping $eautyFs bower. ?ther dreamed of the

0talian enaissance of balustrades terraces descending to sun2en fountain courts> their

champions were *eorge %itwell, 0eginald $loomfield, whose boo2 '6he formal Garden in

!n#land H was published in &+BD, and !arold eto who in his own garden, loo2ed bac2

beyond 0enaissance Italy to Classical 0ome.

1any alternations to gardens great and small at this time were underta2en in order to increase

the opportunities for growing the over-widening range of plants available. If, alpine plants

were to thrive, the right conditions must be provided for them.

The passion for alpines was, initially, a by-product of the &+ th century interest. To most

observers it was the awful grandeur of the roc2s themselves and any associated grottos and

ruins that were the attraction, rather than the plants associated with roc2y conditions. In the

I century it was recognized that a roc2ery was one of the hardest things in the garden to do

well.

s the e#pense of collecting stones is considerable, roc2wor2s, in general, are made on too

small a scale, and more resemble heaps of stones, with the interstice filled with weeds. In a

grand place everything ought to be on grand scale, and a few ob)ects produce a more stri2ing

affect than immense masses of stone, piled together in such a way as at once to give a

particular character of roc2y mass. To maintain a particular character or style in the

disposition of masses, it is to observe the manner in which the roc2s are disposed in nature.

The study of geology will assist both painter and gardener.

The romantic idea of the simple, wholesome rural life was enhanced by comparison with the

dirt, and the disease of industrial urban life. The disciplined but natural appearance of a well-

2ept cottage garden, its fitness for purpose, was an antidote, too to the tight, over-elaborate,

/uardenes/ue style that was fashionable in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The planting in cottage gardens was becoming more self-conscious, more artful. longside

the familiar cottage flowers, the sweet williams, pansies, poppies, wallflowers, columbines

snowdrops, daffodils, forget-me-not, love-lies-blooding, love-in-a-mist and 1ichaelmas

daisies, etc., there were now plants face novel to have English country names plants li2e



wisteria, fuchsias, chrysanthemums, dahlias, hydrangeas and tender begonias. The balance

between flowers and fruit and vegetables had changed in many village gardens. Those who

were not forced by necessity to grow their own food preferred growing flowers to potatoes.

The men too2 great pride in their gardens and allotments and there was always competition

amongst them as to who should have the earliest and choicest of each 2ind. 4at green peas,

broad beams as big as halfpenny, cauliflowers a child could ma2e an armchair of runner beans

and cabbage and 2ale, all in their seasons went into the pot with the roly-poly and ship of

bacon.

3lora 6homson&= wrote from e#perience and without sentimentality that Jpeople were poorer

and had not the comforts, amusements or 2nowledge we have today> but they were happier 3

which seems to suggest that happiness depends more upon the state of mind 3 and body,

perhaps 3 than upon circumstances and eventsH. It is probably the state of mind in country

villages as much as the way of life that many artists and writers found so attractive and

enviable.

4rom &+A+ onwards, apan became accessible to the "est for the first time. There was a

general, if superficial interest in apanese culture, made manifest in *ilbert and %ullivanFs

opera 6he $ikado <&++'= and ucciniFs $adame Butterfl* <&B(7=. 4ashionable ladies loo2 to

wearing sil2 2imonos and protecting themselves from draughts with folding lac/uer screens.

4rench impressionist painters became fascinated by apanese prints and woo dents> in

England, ubrey $eardsleyFs wor2 reflected their style and in &B&(, the fashionable world

floc2ed to the apanese 3 $ritish e#hibition.

s far as the gardens were concerned, in &+B& ;osiah Couder published 6 3lowers of ;apan

and the "rt of 3loral "rran#ements2, followed by 6andscape *ardening6 in apan in &+BD.

These boo2s greatly increased the demand for acers, flowerin# cenies, bamboos, peonies and

chr*santhemums.

Japanese gardensH were created with little understanding of the culture and philosophy

behind the genuine article, and the symbolism employed in its construction, but there were a

few enthusiasts who did their best to ensure authenticity by importing apanese gardeners to

ma2e the gardens. There are not many e#amples today, perhaps because the apanese tradition

is too austere for the English passion for colorful flowers. 0ose gardens, however, so well

suited to the English climate and to the temperament of the English gardener, are still being

made in the twenty first century.

7 = $ritish writer who wrote ar2 0ise to Candle 4ord in &B;B, 7&, 7;.



The turn of the century was a good time for the fairly new profession of garden designer. In

the late Victorian and Edwardian era, a new 2ind of house, built to suit the life style, of new

industrialists and entrepreneurs, demanded a new 2ind of garden, and several designers turned

their talents in this direction. The gardens became e#tensive, spacious, imposing and

elaborately comple#. There were paved terraces, a tennis lawn, a croc2et lawn, a walled

2itchen garden, a rose garden and a la2e almost obligatory features in a rich manFs large

garden of the period. @esigner and client seem to have en)oyed a fertile creative relationship,

and to have fun thin2ing up ideas. To the list they added a 4ompeian #arden in the 0oman

style, an Italian terrace, a cloister, a lavender court, heart #arden, theatre #arden, bathin#

pool #arden, dahlia #arden and a lar#e lil* canal.

The pattern of landownership was changing. dvances in farm machinery meant that fewer

wor2ers were needed on the land. Cottages formerly occupied by farm laborers were now

owned by commuters with city )obs, and by wee2-enders. Their gardens were usually

maintained in the traditional cottage-garden style, but at the same time a brilliant new age of

gardening was dawning. The primary ob)ective of the garden was to satisfy the ownerFs love

plants and gardening and good taste. The designers needed a strong creative imagination and

impeccable taste in arranging their plants to provide effective harmonies and contrast of

colour, form and te#ture. They were designed according to a principle e#pressed by Vita

%ac2ville-"est in his poem JThe *ardenH the lu#uriant, informal planting within a strictly

formal layout, produces the English character, taste, and climate.

The war changed everything. eople left home to fight or to serve the war effort in other

ways, and young women went to wor2 in munitions factories as land girls to replace farm

laborers who had been conscripted. The character of gardening changed completely. It was the

patriotic duty of those who were left home to Jdig for victoryH to produce as much food as

their patch of ground was capable of. ?n small gardens lawns and flowerbeds were dug over

in order o grow them as well as other vegetable crops. lenty of horticultural advice was

available. Everyone listened an#iously to the wireless for news of the war, and stayed tuned

for broadcasts offering *overnment advice and a new programme, J*ardnerFs Nuestion

TimeH. 8ewspapers published their wee2ly gardening articles, 1inistry leaflets were

distributed and information spread through the invaluable networ2 of "omenFs Institute.

In large gardens, open lawns were ploughed and sown with corn, vegetables or fodder crops,

or allowed to grow into hay for winter food for cattle. E#cept for a few survivors, rare and

precious ornamental plants were unable to compete with aggressively successful weeds and



disappeared. 8ow that so many historic gardens have been so beautifully restored, it is hard to

imagine the devastation caused by wartime.

fter the war, the housing providing made an immediate start small, single-storey houses

made of prefabricated concrete, asbestos and aluminum units that were /uic2ly erected on

site. lthough it was intended to be a partial and temporary solution, prefabricated gardens

were also laid out on traditional cottage levies, with flowers each side of a concrete path

leading to the front door and, at the bac2, a vegetable plat and perhaps a few fruit bushes.

4ood rationing continued for some years after the war, and home grown-produce helped ease

the financial burden of couples with young children to feed.

The idea that every household could have a garden was the starting point for many housing

authorities when planning new provision or replacing old, sub-standard housing stoc2. $ut in

many areas such an ideal could not be entertained, and, high-rise bloc2s of flats <becoming

higher as building technology developed= with ownerless communal spaces below, became

the norm.

The countryside was shrin2ing. and was being ta2en out of agricultural use for industrial

development as well as housing, and new roads were built to serve the growing population in

the new housing estates, as the freight traffic increased and prosperity meant increasing car

ownership. @evelopment went sna2ing out from the cities along new dual carriageways,

followed by land-greedy si#-lane motorways, ring roads and bypasses. %uburban houses were

designed with gardens )ust the right size for two amateurs to maintain and improve in their

spare time. *ardens loo2ed inwards again, as they had in medieval times, attempting to

e#clude a hostile world and to give privacy from prying neighbors.

Titles of publications and names of authors still interested in gardening at that time may be

mentioned %andersF !nc*clopedia of Gardenin#, "mateur of Gardenin# , which Thomas

%anders edited from &++: until his death in &BDA> Ward Lock’s Complete Gardenin# edited by

C.E. earson, Landscape Gardenin# by 0ichard %udell, and others.

In &B'A, the first Clean ir ct was passed by the arliament, introducing smo2eless zone as

a result of the sinister atmosphere created by ondon fog, metaphorically as well as literally

described by Charles @ic2ens in $lea2 !ouse, by %ir rthur Conan @oyle in some %herloc2

!olmesFs adventures and by 0obert ouis %tevenson in the %trange Case of @r. e2yll and 1r.

!yde. The &B'D smog was the catalyst that finally prompted action. @uring the years of

pollution, lac2 of light and layers of acid and soot on their leaves caused much stress to

garden plants in industrial towns and often 2illed them. eople felt li2e bringing their flowers

into their houses, to protect them and to ma2e themselves comfortable.



In the houses of the gentry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, one of the duties of the

head gardener was to decorate the house, not only with pots of orchids, gardenias or ferns

from the stone house, but also with cut flowers arranged in vases. This is still the case in the

D(th century.

The undisputed pioneer and /ueen of flower arrangers was Constance %pry. !er boo2s on

flower arranging )ow to do the 3lower and 4art* and 4art* 3lowers became best sellers. %he

loved especially Jold rosesH arrangements that became a fashion after &B'D when she

designed the flower arrangements for the coronation of Nueen Elisabeth II, and they were all

the range for the remaining decades of the D( th century, their range of colours becoming

indicators of good taste. 4or nearly '( years the gardens and arrangements that people envied

and emulated were pin2, blue, mauve and white with lots of grey and silver 3 leaved plants.

Touches of purple, crimson and pale yellow provided daring highlights. It was a winning

formula, and many of the most admired gardens today still adhere to it.

Improved rail and road communications, relatively cheap fares and increased car ownership

led to an increase in the popularity of garden visiting as a leisure activity. The result was an

unprecedented interchange of garden design ideas, suggestions for plant combinations and

sometimes the e#change of actual plants. *roup tours were organized by horticultural

societies and other interested groups. *arden visitors usually came e/uipped with cameras

and from &B'(, onwards, loaded them with colour film. Chelsea 3lower Show became an

annual 1ecca for been gardeners. *arden furniture, ornaments, tools and e/uipment could be

ordered at Chelsea, *ardening became a serious leisure pursuit, and the horticultural industry

was becoming a serious earner.

4or the predominantly urban population, gardens now became sanctuaries> more traffic

moving at faster speeds made the world outside unsafe and unpleasant. 8oise and atmosphere

pollution could not be 2ept out, but they could be ignored, and, what was more important,

children could be 2ept safely inside the garden Children became important, perhaps the most

important users of gardens and the pleasuring of the garden and its elements began to centre

on them. 1any gardens became playgrounds e/uipped with sand pets, paddling pools, swings,

climbing frames and paved areas for riding tricycles and scooters. In his boo2 ?own to !arth

Gardenin# <&BA:= awrence !ills recognized other practical re/uirements for gardens,

including the need for access across flowerbeds for the window cleaver, and hard standing for

a car. !e was concerned with helping ordinary people ma2e gardens properly suited for

modern family life.



&'-D( years after the second world-war general prosperity increased> shorter wor2ing hours

meant that people had more money and more time to spend in their gardens. !orticultural

shopping re/uirements were served by a revolution in retailing that had started in &B+(Fs in

merica. The rise of garden centers was made possible by an insatiable demand for plants and

other garden needs. Customers could place their orders for plants with the nurseries choosing

them from catalogues. The plants were sent out in the planting season. 4rom &B+(Fs to the end

of the twentieth century, the e#pansion in the mar2et for unusual plants has been remar2able.

!erbaceous plants, the stalwarts of colourful borders for half a century, were relegated to the

wilderness, or worse, the compost heap, during the period when the fashion for labour-saving

shrubs and ground cover ruled.

1ost gardenersF ideal wild garden would consist of nature without the stinging nettles,

brambles and briers. $ut for others, the purpose is to support wild life in the garden, providing

ford and breeding for birds, butterflies and other insects, hedgehogs and other small mamals,

amphibians such as frogs and newts. This 2ind of garden is important to the increasing

number of gardeners who wish to avoid using chemical preparations in the garden. TodayFs

organic gardeners are one of the fashions.

s far as the design of gardens is concerned, today gardeners can choose from the cumulative

style bar2 of the past or they can have a stale at predicting the future. The late &BB(Fs saw a

proliferation of television gardening programmes of a different 2ind. Throughout the

twentieth century the pace of life had accelerated, fashions in various aspects of social and

cultural life succeeding each other at an alarming rate. 8ow, as the twenty-first century has

began, the fashionable discover that clothes, hair, car, children, holidays, house are ready for

another ma2e-over as soon as they have grown accustomed to the last one. *ardens as well as

English Civilization

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Transcript of English Civilization