are the British imperial days romanticised?

[1130 WNEW]

I guess there is appeal in the image of an Old English summer. Sunshine and the sound of leather on willow, the cask of Crudgington's 4X Bitter, an urn of tea, and cucumber sandwiches.

You always hear about the English and tea and crumpets but why are the English way of them considered special?

[Превед]

I guess there is appeal in the image of an Old English summer. Sunshine and the sound of leather on willow, the cask of Crudgington's 4X Bitter, an urn of tea, and cucumber sandwiches.

You always hear about the English and tea and crumpets but why are the English way of them considered special?

Notice that it's the upper-class haunts (and middle-class dreams) of rural Southern England that feature in these romanticisings, not the industrial working-class Northern England.

Regarding cucumber sandwiches Wikipedia says this:
The popularity of the cucumber sandwich reached its upper-class zenith in the Edwardian era, when cheap labour and plentiful coal enabled cucumbers to be produced in hotbeds under glass through most of the year.

During the Edwardian era, the butter used in England (also for cucumber sandwiches) increasingly came from the expanding and export-focused Danish dairy industry, a process which was part of Denmark's economical, political, social and cultural reorientation after the devastating defeat to the Prussians in 1864.

[TimM]

I guess there is appeal in the image of an Old English summer.

And they did have an Empire that spanned much of the globe, including our two respective countries (Canada and Australia).   Not bad for a tine little island.  Our countries are dotted with cities named after important British figures from that time.

Even Rome of the Caesars was nowhere near as vast.

[1130 WNEW]

Considering how modern people view Kitchener the man, it's a shame that the Canadian city refused to revert its name to Berlin, out of pique.

[Превед]

Considering how modern people view Kitchener the man, it's a shame that the Canadian city refused to revert its name to Berlin, out of pique.

Interestingly for us royalty fans, the city's Wikipedia article has this quote:
The Governor General of Canada, the Duke of Connaught, while visiting Berlin, Ontario, in May 1914 (!), discussed the importance of Canadians of German ethnicity (regardless of their origin) in a speech: "It is of great interest to me that many of the citizens of Berlin are of German descent. I well know the admirable qualities – the thoroughness, the tenacity, and the loyalty of the great Teutonic Race, to which I am so closely related. I am sure that these inherited qualities will go far in the making of good Canadians and loyal citizens of the British Empire".

[TimM]

Two months before the start of the First World War.

[Превед]

Two months before the start of the First World War.

Yes, while they still were Princes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Dukes of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, also Angria and Westphalia, Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen, Princely Count of Henneberg, Count of the Mark and Ravensberg, Lord of Ravenstein and Tonna, et cetera.

Here is a famous example of romanticising the gentry's easy summer life in the good, old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (by an anti-Russian writer in Parisian exile): Youtube: Polonaise from "Pan Tadeusz"

Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie;
Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie,
Kto cię stracił.
=
Lithuania, my fatherland! You are like health;
How much you must be valued, will only discover
The one who has lost you.
[....]
Mężczyznom dano wódkę; wtenczas wszyscy siedli,
I chołodziec litewski milcząc żwawo jedli.
=
The men were given vodka; and all took their seat,
And Lithuanian cold borscht all proceeded to eat.

From Poland's national poem: "Pan Tadeusz, czyli Ostatni zajazd na Litwie" = Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Foray in Lithuania.

[TimM]

I guess any thought of changing the name back to Berlin ended with World War II.

[Превед]

I guess any thought of changing the name back to Berlin ended with World War II.

They should have changed the name to Boloto, which is the Russian and Ukrainian word for swamp, which probably is the meaning of the Slavic place-name Berlin. (Notice that Berlin and boloto have b-l in common.) Canada has a large population with Ukrainian ancestry, don't you? Bolotino sounds nice too, like an Italian fashion brand or a Russian country estate.

[TimM]

Canada has a large population with Ukrainian ancestry, don't you?

We do, but they mostly settled farther west, in the Prairie provinces.

[TimM]

Funny thing, cricket never really took off here in Canada. It's well established in other former British colonies, such as Australia, India, and South Africa, but not here.

I'm guessing that our proximity to the U.S. has something to do with it. We embraced their sports like baseball and football (not to be confused with what the Brits call football, which is soccer) instead.

Then again, the U.S. embraced Canada's national sport, hockey. So I guess it all works out.

Do they have hockey in Britain and Australia?