Country houses
Sir: Mr Patrick Cormack's article (March 29) laments the sad state of the English country houses. He says, "It is in them and in our churches that we come closest to the soul and spirit of England." In the last quarter of the twentieth century Mr Cormack's statement is almost ladghable if it were not so sad.
The white English-speaking world overseas is filled with the descendants of small farmers and agricultural workers who were driven out of the British Isles by the builders of those country houses. The sine qua non for building one of those old country houses was a ruthless exploitation of its surrounding estate and all the poor devils who worked on it. The big plantation houses of the ante bellum Old South in the United States were founded on a similar immorality.
A few years ago, my wife and I were motivated to visit Woburn Abbey because we had watched the Duke of Bedford on American television. His Grace came across as a most charming, decent sort of man with an engaging sense of fun. At Woburn I innocently snapped a photograph of my wife in one of the corridors. Instantly a young woman attendant snarled at me in fury, "No photographs! No photographs!" I apologised, hoping my American accent would get me off. The young woman was not to be mollified, however, and muttered, "Your film could be confiscated." The rest of the staff, with a few exceptions, were equally surly and disdainful.
This unpleasant little experience led me to ask some searching questions about places like Woburn Abbey. I saw Woburn for what it was — a fantastic treasure trove built out of the misery of the estate workers. Instead of wistful sentimentality about what are essentially piles of loot, let us think of the h,uman misery which was the price paid for it all.
Rather than old houses which represent the rapacity of a bad old society, the English have far worthier things to be proud of — Magna Carta, Parliament, honour and decency in human relations, and ad infinitum.
Raymond Boyle 166 East Second Street, Corning, New York, 14830 USA
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