Posted by Edwin M. Kiser on April 23, 1999 at 20:09:31:
I am an American, born in North Carolina, raised in the county of
"Scotland", now living in South Florida. Except for one business
trip that was all too quickly done and over, I have never been to
England. That one trip is hardly worth counting. I grew up in
the town of LAURINBURG, which was named for the original colonial
settler in the area, a Scott named McLauren. The high school
band members there all wore the tartan of the clan McLauren, and
in spite of some of the fellows who were at first concerned with
wearing a skirt, they all wore the kilt. The marching band was
not lead with Majorettes, as it was considered "unseemly", but
was instead lead with four pipers. The Drum Major lead the band
while wearing the tall beaver hat that is so associated with the
English. My teachers' names were McLaughlin, McKensey, McLauren,
MacDonald. It was common to refer to each other, when not sure
of the proper name, as "Mac". A local private college is named
"Flora MacDonald" that we affectionately referred to as "Flossy
Mac".
I was brought up to feel a strong relationship with our cousins
across the sea in the old country, even though we did not know of
any particular ones personally. The habits and customs that we
performed, the playing of the pipes, the tossing of the Caber,
the dancing of the Highland Fling, are all very Americanized, and
are probably inaccurate imitations of the real thing in the old
country. But it is in our culture, in our heritage.
Not being privileged to see the real thing in its natural
setting, we still have a hunger that is more than just curiosity
as to how people are like in the Motherland. We see movies, but
for all we know, some of those actors are Americans trying to
speak with English accents. You in the UK probably have an idea
as to what Americans are like, an opinion that is probably a
combination of John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, James Cagney, and
Humphrey Bogart. But we don't sound like that, and you probably
don't all sound like Richard Burton either, although I must say
what he did with the spoken English phrase is a most beautiful
way of doing it, one that we on both sides of the ocean would do
well to imitate.
You may ask, what is the relevancy of all this nostalgia to
Arthur Ransome? His characters became my personal childhood
playmates. I grew up with those people. They were in a strange
world; they used strange words for things, and they spelled some
of the words I knew in a way I would have considered to be wrong,
but through them, I felt I got a glimpse of my English cousins,
whoever they are. The Ransome characters became to me the
Ambassadors from England. Knowing them let me feel that I knew
you all perhaps just a bit better. As Ransome's characters
became a part of me, I felt reconnected with my ancestors, where
the ancestral family names of Westmorland and Butner hold a
prominent place in my family tree.
It is through Ransome that I am able to feel like a part of that
world, to respect it, and indeed, to love it. His love for that
land was so obvious, that to read his works is to take on that
love in myself.
Another author displayed his love of the land thusly:
This royal throne of kings, this scept'red isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
In "King Richard II", by William Shakespeare
So beautifully put...
Thank you, Arthur Ransome, for letting me experience in some small
way, a part of that world, and to let me think of it as mine.