September 6, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
A Vision of England 
By Charles Marriott 
19 
*The Pool 
Uu r. L. Griggi 
MOST of US carrj' about in our hearts a concep- 
tion of England that is much more real to us 
than the England that we see. Generally 
thougli not always, it is associated with the place 
where we sp_ent our childhood, and takes its character from 
that ; with the strange result that the details of Thomas Hood's 
1 remember I remember '• are almost universally recognis(-d 
As a rule, the conception does not go much further than 
tins m.mtal picture of " the house where I was bom " but 
m some of us it goes on developing under the surface of life, 
and we are always half-consciouslv ronfirming and adding 
bits to It. For no appar ' ^ 
€nt reason certain things, 
whether actually seen or 
experienced or only read 
about or heard in music, 
are immediately recog- 
nised as belonging to this 
England of the heart ; 
while, equally without 
reason, certain others 
are not. Often it is 
much more familiar in 
dreams than in waking 
moments, which seems 
to show that it exists in 
the sub-conscious rather 
than the conscious mind. 
This would account for 
its extraordinary reality 
and consistency! as also 
for the fact that, if their 
broken utterances are to tl c j 
be trusted, it i? the *"^ *'°''^ 
England to which dying 
men return. In its character, persistent and at the same 
time fragmentary with lapses as incomprehensible as the 
vivid reality of some portions, it might be compared 
to the original writing of a palimpsest. Life writes another 
text over it, but nobody having'^ made out parts of the 
original would hesitate for a moment to sav which was 
the rnorc real and true, no matter how full ajid active 
his liU: might have been. How much, if anything, the 
original text owes to ante-natal memory I am not pn'- 
pared to say ; but it is quite certain that it embodies many 
scc{ies and incidents that coiild not have come into individual 
* These photographs are reproduced by courtesy of the pjiblish.Ts 
The Twenty-One Giillery. York Buildings. Adelphi. 
experience. Almost everybody would be able to give instances 
of their delighted astonishment at coming upon some unmis- 
takable reference to their England in a book, picture or piece 
of music. In my own case personal familiarity with the death 
of Sir John Falstaft may be explained by the fact that I had 
the good fortune to spend my childhood in Gloucestershire, 
where the people talk like that to this day ; but why should 
I knowmy way about Lamb's " Mackery End " and " Blakes- 
moor?" Or why, again, should the second variation of the 
second movement of Beethoven's Sonata Appassiona'.a, 
which is not even English, recall for me not only a particular 
scene but a particular 
day ? It is true that 
there is here a. sugges- 
tion of evening bells over 
summer fields ; but why 
should that music bring 
back the fields when the 
bells themselves do not.? 
As for the death of 
Colonel Newcome, that 
is England for so many 
people that I shall not 
claim it as personal. 
Every now and then 
you meet a jserson in 
whom the England of 
the heart is so constant 
that they may be said 
to live in it. Such per- 
sons are usually in- 
different to their actual 
surroundings. They can 
live in a slum— or what 
■ ,, . •,•..,., i* worse— a new suburb 
without prejudice to their health or happiness, because 
their spmtual home is elsewhere. Indeed, you can test tlie 
reality of England^n a mans heart by his regard for actual sur- 
roundings. If he is always girding against bricks and mortar 
you may be sure that the reality is weak ; and, on the other 
hand, people m whom it is strong are not more than indul- 
gently interested in such admirable institutions as garden 
cities and suburbs. They don't need them. Probably the 
V}?.^^. real Englishman, in that sens<-, that ever Hved was 
V\ ilham Blake. Phis little cockney printer had an Englaiifl 
so lirm and complet.> and consistent that he took it for granted 
in an allu.sive manner that can only Ix- called exasperatim; 
to less fortunate people. I often think that George IIl^ 
rake them away !" on being shown some of Blake's drawings 
B» f. L. Griggn 
