From: "Martin John Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
<<
I'm speaking here of what I know,
southrons, to be more exact (to use Bunting's expression), not the
"British", who do not exist. (Robin might have a word or 2 to say about
that.)
>>
Well, yeah, at *one* level, a "British" class system doesn't exist -- it's
Scots and English and Irish.
I taught an Authentic Lord once -- Irish title, admittedly, but the guy
himself was echt-English nonetheless. He was completely barking mad--
technically so, as his wife, an Argentinian ex-stripper, had a court-order
to administer his estates.
(Mind you, she was even battier than he, in some ways, having a theory that
the Poor of Argentinia could stave-off pangs of hunger by contemplating
Beautiful Argentinian Sunsets.)
I actually liked him and got on with him -- my class-instincts don't seem to
naturally kick into play with the English -- but I suppose he wasn't
typical. As well as being totally crazy, he was ex-Sandhurst (cashiered, as
he missed his labradors) and ended up later (so I heard) living in a London
squat which which just happened to be part of a 1/4 square-mile block of
central London he personally owned.
It would have been different if he had been Scots or I had been English --
mostly, we were off each other's class-radar.
Sorry if this is irrelevant -- I'm trying to belatedly catch-up on the petc
posts, and Martin's remark caught my eye.
Robin
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