{"id":7815,"date":"2021-04-25T16:57:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T16:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7815"},"modified":"2021-04-25T16:57:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T16:57:37","slug":"april-26-englands-been-going-to-the-dogs-since-the-normans-came","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2021\/04\/25\/april-26-englands-been-going-to-the-dogs-since-the-normans-came\/","title":{"rendered":"England's been going to the dogs since the Normans came"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those who took\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=5997&amp;action=edit\">Philip Larkin's<\/a>\u00a0gloomy text about the state of the country(side) too much to heart, fear not. \u00a0As AN Wilson noted in his poetry of place book, <em>England<\/em>, published by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelbooks.co.uk\/book_detail.asp?id=125\">Eland Books<\/a>,\u00a0this country\u00a0has been going to the dogs from\u00a0at least the 14th century \u2013 longer, probably, if the Anglo Saxon Chronicle is anything to go by.<\/p>\n<p>This is John of Gaunt in Shakespeare's Richard II ...<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Methinks I am a prophet new inspired<br \/>\nAnd thus expiring do foretell of him:<br \/>\nHis rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,<br \/>\nFor violent fires soon burn out themselves;<br \/>\nSmall showers last long, but sudden storms are short;<br \/>\nHe tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;<br \/>\nWith eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:<br \/>\nLight vanity, insatiate cormorant,<br \/>\nConsuming means, soon preys upon itself.<br \/>\nThis royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,<br \/>\nThis earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,<br \/>\nThis other Eden, demi-paradise,<br \/>\nThis fortress built by Nature for herself<br \/>\nAgainst infection and the hand of war,<br \/>\nThis happy breed of men, this little world,<br \/>\nThis precious stone set in the silver sea,<br \/>\nWhich serves it in the office of a wall,<br \/>\nOr as a moat defensive to a house,<br \/>\nAgainst the envy of less happier lands,<br \/>\nThis blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,<br \/>\nThis nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,<br \/>\nFear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,<br \/>\nRenowned for their deeds as far from home,<br \/>\nFor Christian service and true chivalry,<br \/>\nAs is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,<br \/>\nOf the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,<br \/>\nThis land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,<br \/>\nDear for her reputation through the world,<br \/>\nIs now leased out, I die pronouncing it,<br \/>\nLike to a tenement or pelting farm:<br \/>\nEngland, bound in with the triumphant sea<br \/>\nWhose rocky shore beats back the envious siege<br \/>\nOf watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,<br \/>\nWith inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:<br \/>\nThat England, that was wont to conquer others,<br \/>\nHath made a shameful conquest of itself.<br \/>\nAh, would the scandal vanish with my life,<br \/>\nHow happy then were my ensuing death!<\/p>\n<p>...<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those who took\u00a0Philip Larkin's\u00a0gloomy text about the state of the country(side) too much to heart, fear not. \u00a0As AN Wilson noted in his poetry of place book, England, published by\u00a0Eland Books,\u00a0this country\u00a0has been going to the dogs from\u00a0at least...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}