William Lyon Phelp

Description

All persons who speak the English language should never forget the year 1066, for although it bloomed and faded long ago, it was an im ­portant event in our lives. In that year Wil ­liam the Conqueror sailed across the English Channel, landed on the south coast of England, and his descendants and those of his party are there yet. No wonder the British are proud of their naval and military history. England is sepa ­rated from the continent by only twenty miles; and yet since 1066 not a single person has got into England and stayed there without an in ­vitation. For nearly nine hundred years Eng ­land has successfully repelled boarders. Many able and determined foes devoted all their ener ­gies to realise their heart's desire. The Spanish Armada was a grandiose war-fleet, but Sir Fran ­cis Drake and the surface of the Channel that has made so many tourists seasick, were too powerful a combination for the gallant Span ­iards. The dream of Napoleon was to invade and possess England; the nearest he ever got to it was St. Helena. There is an enormous col ­umn at Boulogne which was erected to "com ­memorate the intention of Napoleon to invade England." I knew that intentions were often used as pavingstones in a certain locality; but, like Browning's futile lovers in The Statue and the Bust, the immobility of the commemoration is an ironical commentary. In the World War, the Central Powers were well-equipped for an expeditionary force on land, water and air; the best-selling novel in Germany in 1916 was called General Hindenburg's March into London, but it was a work of the imagination.

Companies nearby