In light of this week’s devastating news (or not so devastating as might be the case if one happens to have to have dual nationality, I might even be so bold as to say I feel like I win when I lose: dependent on political climate, of course!) I thought I might offer something from which those not so fortunate as I might take solace, something I read just last week in fact:
Somebody said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on Eton playing-fields. It was a particularly unfortunate remark, for the English contribution to the victory of Waterloo depended very much more than is common in victories upon the steadiness of the rank and file in an almost desperate situation. The Battle of Waterloo was won by the stubbornness of the common soldier—that is to say, it was won by the man who had never been to Eton. It was absurd to say that Waterloo was won on Eton cricket-fields. But it might have been fairly said that Waterloo was won on the village green, where clumsy boys played a very clumsy cricket. In a word, it was the average of the nation that was strong, and athletic glories do not indicate much about the average of a nation. Waterloo was not won by good cricket-players. But Waterloo was won by bad cricket-players, by a mass of men who had some minimum of athletic instincts and habits.
It is a good sign in a nation when such things are done badly. It shows that all the people are doing them. And it is a bad sign in a nation when such things are done very well, for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics are doing them, and that the nation is merely looking on. Suppose that whenever we heard of walking in England it always meant walking forty-five miles a day without fatigue. We should be perfectly certain that only a few men were walking at all, and that all the other British subjects were being wheeled about in Bath-chairs…
The difficulty is therefore that the actual raising of the standard of athletics has probably been bad for national athleticism.
Now there’s something for the weekend: David Beckham leading out the troops at Waterloo anyone?
A free copy of G.K. Chesterton’s The Club of Queer Trades for the first person to name the source correctly!
KA, Abba-esque
Once upon a time it would have required a good memory, a background of wide reading, and a perception of tone to rival Toscanini’s to answer this one off pat. Today all you need to do is Google it, which is of course both a good and a bad thing. So despite having found the source it feels like cheating to say what it is, like answering a question by turning to the back of the book.
Nevertheless, I did think reformer rather than radical, with a Tory streak, and not Orwell because it doesn’t have quite his quickness of phrase, and not enough vinegar.
Arthur Wellesley or the Duke of Wellington
A valiant attempt earlwyn… I guess you learn something new every day: for fear of betraying my ignorance I turned to my trusty friend Wikipedia, and it turns out that – ‘The Duke of Wellington is often quoted as saying that “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton”, but this has been challenged. Wellington briefly attended Eton – for which he had no great love – in the late 18th century, when the school had no playing fields and no organised team sports, and the statement was first recorded three years after his death.’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College]
I’m now going to discover the truth about Captain Hook’s formative years…
KA