The Identity of Britain

Abstract

Opening his massive appraisal of the Gallic environment, The Identity of France, Fernand Braudel stresses the diversity of the nation, geographically and humanly: ‘Every village, every valley, a fortiori every pays . . . every town, every region, every province has its own distinct character – visible not only in the particular features displayed in the landscape and the many imprints man has left upon it, but also in a lived culture.’ He cites a previous author who observed that ‘Even for the traveller on foot . . . the landscape is always changing.’ The reader who follows in Defoe’s steps on his Tour, whether those were taken on two legs or four, or even by carriage, will find something of the samediversity inBritain. Braudel defines pays asmeaning ‘an areawith its own identity, as the pays de Bray, pays de Caux’. He adds that ‘not so long ago there still survived intact local privileges . . . local dialects, folklore, traditional houses . . . and local costumes’.Most of these things are apparent in the Tour, as thework enshrines a range of customs and social practices across Britain from Land’s End to John o’Groats. In the language of wines, we get the ‘race’ of each district – the flavour of life as it was lived in early modern days, from the Isle of Ely to the Solway Firth, from theWeald to the Pennines, from the Peak to the Brecon Beacons, from the Vale of Evesham to Strathearn. At the start of the second volume of hisTour, Defoe reflects on the progress of his circuit to date. His supposed journey had got as far as Land’s End, the extreme tip of the British landmass as it juts out into the Atlantic Ocean: ‘My last letter ended the Account ofmyTravels, whereNature ended her Account, when she meeted out the Island, and where she fix’d the utmost Western Bounds of Britain’ (2: 9).The syntax equates Defoe’s own narrative with the ‘Account’ of nature herself, and prepares us for a ceremonial beating of the national bounds conducted by the author as he carries forward his description of the country’s imagined corners. This sentence continues: