Introduction
Writing in full knowledge of the horrors of the Great War, columnist Alfred Gardiner found early twentieth-century sneering towards the past a little hard to bear. The kind of progress we had made, he said, had not given us that right, and it was particularly grating to hear the moderns scorn their grandparents’ idea of how to keep Christmas and New Year.
I cannot get my indignation up to the boil about Victorian England. I should find it as difficult to draw up an indictment of a century as it is to draw up an indictment of a nation.* I seem to remember that the Nineteenth Century used to speak as disrespectfully of the Eighteenth as we now speak of the Nineteenth, and I fancy that our grandchildren will be as scornful of our world of to-day as we are of the world of yesterday. The fact that we have learned to fly, and have discovered poison gas, and have invented submarines and guns that will kill a churchful of people seventy miles away does not justify us in regarding the Nineteenth Century as a sort of absurd guy.* There were very good things as well as very bad things about our old Victorian England. It did not go to the Ritz to dance in the New Year, it is true. The Ritz did not exist, and the modern hotel life had not been invented. It used to go instead to the watch-night service,* and it was not above making good resolutions, which for the most part, no doubt, it promptly proceeded to break. Why should we apologise for these habits? Why should we be ashamed of watch-night services and good resolutions? [...]
* A reference to a remark by Edmund Burke MP, made during his ‘Speech on Conciliation with America’ on March 22nd, 1775, in which he roundly criticised the Government for its petty, legalistic response to the complex issues behind the American Revolution. “It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic,” he said, “to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.”
* ‘Guy’ here means ‘a figure of fun’.
* A watch-night service is a Christian vigil service, especially (but not necessarily) one held in the late evening on December 31st. Watch-nights spread to English culture thanks largely to John and Charles Wesley, who borrowed the idea from the Moravians; Charles wrote several hymns for them, and the Methodists held them on occasions throughout the year. The New Year’s Eve watch-night became a feature of US culture after late night crowds gathered to see in the morning of January 1st, 1863, when Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation would take effect.
Précis
Columnist Alfred Gardiner told his readers that he would not join in the fashion, spreading after the Great War, for sneering at the Victorians. Society, he said, had not progressed so far as to justify it. In particular, he would not sneer at a Victorian Christmas simply because our forebears attended church instead of dances, and made pious resolutions. (59 / 60 words)
Columnist Alfred Gardiner told his readers that he would not join in the fashion, spreading after the Great War, for sneering at the Victorians. Society, he said, had not progressed so far as to justify it. In particular, he would not sneer at a Victorian Christmas simply because our forebears attended church instead of dances, and made pious resolutions.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, despite, if, just, or, ought, whether.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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