I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history if I can succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Wherever on this planet ideals of personal freedom and dignity apply, there you will find the cultural inheritance of England.
As far as what I do, my value as a writer is certainly not to try to recapitulate a 19th century form. Certain styles of narrative don't conform to my style of experiencing the world.
Well, I certainly wouldn't want to live in the 18th century myself, or the 19th either, for that matter.
I am a person of the 18th century.
Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers.
The notion of 'history from below' hit the history profession in England very hard around the time I came to Oxford in the early 1960s.
We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.
Although I've lived in England for more than twenty years, I still have a foreigner's passion for all the details of English history and rural life.
If any imagine from the literary tone of the preceding remarks that we are indifferent to the radical movement for the benefit of the masses which is the crowning glory of the nineteenth century, they will soon discover their egregious mistake.
I shall always be grateful for this curious love of history, allowing me to spend a lifetime looking back into the past, allowing me to learn from these large figures about the struggle for meaning for life.