“It is England we love, we Americans,” she had said to her father. “What could be more natural? We belong to it—it belongs to us. I could never be convinced that the old tie of blood does not count. All nationalities have come to us since we became a nation, but most of us in the beginning came from England. We are touching about it, too. We trifle with France and labour with Germany, we sentimentalise over Italy and ecstacise over Spain—but England we love. How it moves us when we go to it, how we gush if we are simple and effusive, how we are stirred
imaginatively if we are of the perceptive class. I have heard the commonest little half-educated woman say the prettiest, clumsy, emotional things about what she has seen there. A New England school ma’am, who has made a Cook’s tour, will almost have tears in her voice as she wanders on with her commonplaces about hawthorn hedges and thatched cottages and white or red farms. Why are we not unconsciously pathetic about German cottages and Italian villas? Because we have not, in centuries past, had the habit of being born in them. It is only an English cottage and an English lane, whether white with hawthorn blossoms or bare with winter, that wakes in us that little yearning, grovelling tenderness that is so sweet. It is only nature calling us home.”
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Shuttle
Have you ever gone to a place and immediately felt like you were home? I have felt that way in England and Scotland. You don't even have to go there, though, to feel that resonance. You can read a book set in a certain place and feel the same way. I found this quote by the author of The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and The Little Princess that describes this feeling. I think there's something in our genetic code that makes us feel at home in certain places. Too many people have described this happening for it not to be true.
Is it just a coincidence that most of my ancestors come from England, Ireland, and Scotland? I've never been to Ireland, but I bet I'll feel the same way there. I love the music; absolutely love it. Whenever I hear Celtic music, I feel it down to the core of my being. It draws me, it says, "Come home." I want to. Someday I hope to live somewhere in the British Isles for a month or two. I wonder if I'd miss the US if I did that? I'd love the chance to find out!
5 comments:
I know exactly what you mean... When I visited Edinburgh (and several other places in Scotland and England) in 2001, I felt like I had been homesick for it all my life, even though it was my first time being there. It was a strange feeling... Your quote captured it - thanks for sharing that. I'd love to go back someday...
That is EXACTLY how our whole family feels about England. It just feels so much like home. And I'd love to live there too, for a few months. Not sure I'd like the traffic, the winding narrow roads, the high housing prices, government healthcare, and traffic cameras everywhere for a lifetime, but a few months living there would be awesome!
I think you should aim to live there for a year -- think big! Don't you think two months would go by awfully fast? If I knew I were staying in a place for two months, I'd feel the need to pack my days full. I think it would require a year stretching out before me, for me to settle into a natural pace.
I don't think my children and grandchildren could do without me for a whole year; maybe for a month or two, though.
Enjoyed reading that extract by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I love her writing. As a UK resident I yearn for America!
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