Britain Culture
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Britain is a nation of proudly preserved traditions and widely celebrated culture, whose character is marked by its geography as an island. Yet this character is not entirely collective, being split by the three distinctively different countries of England, Scotland and Wales with their own national identities. British Art, Literature & Culture As a whole, Britain has a population of some 60 million people, most of these are situated in England with a population of 51 million, just over 5 million in Scotland and three million in Wales.
For such a small and compact country, there is incredible diversity in England alone, which is as visible in the rural and urban landscapes as it is audible in the many accents and dialects. From the Cockney accent of London's east end, famed for its rhyming slang, the West Country rural drawl, the monotone Brummie accent of the Midlands to the scouse twang of Liverpool, the broad accent of Manchester, the homely tones of Yorkshire and the distinctive but difficult accent of the north east, Geordies of Newcastle, the language is spoken in much more diverse tones than the Queen's English. In Wales they speak a different language altogether and in parts of north Wales you could find yourself being asked Ydach chi yn gallu siarad Cymraeg? – can you speak Welsh? However only about 20% of those living in Wales actually speak Welsh and these tend to be in rural enclaves compared to the majority who live in the industrial south east of the country around the capital city, Cardiff. Scotland also has its own language, Scot's Gaelic, a close cousin to Irish Gaelic, though very few people speak it and these are concentrated in the Highlands and Western Isles. The vast area of the Highlands is Britain's most sparsely populated with just 20 people per square mile. The majority of Scots are located around the cities of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city and Edinburgh, it's capital city. Between these three countries and also Ireland are centuries of combined history and cultural exchanges, fuelling each country's proud national identity. This combination is reflected in the Union Jack which sees the Blue and White Saltire of St Andrews of Scotland behind St Patrick's red and white cross and England's St George Cross in the foreground. The role of England throughout the history of the British Isles has been at best overbearing and worst down right oppressive, and the largest nation continues to dominate affairs although greater self-governance has been given through Devolution in Scotland and Wales. As well as the peoples from these separate nations, Britain is made up from people whose roots are in other nations from further a field. Largely from the 1950s immigrants began to come from the former colonies of the British Empire such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Caribbean. They established close-knit communities around London and the industrial areas of the Midlands and the north that still thrive today, adding further to Britain's rich cultural melting pot. British Art, Literature & Culture
Scotland and Wales, both have their own literary figureheads, Robert Burns and Dylan Thomas. In Scotland, Burns' birthday 25 th January is widely celebrated at Burns Night, were the Scottish Bard is toasted with haggis and whisky and recitals of his poetry. Welshman Dylan Thomas is the most recent, an acclaimed writer in the early 20 th Century, whose life and work were cut short by alcoholism. His works included Portrait of the Man as a Young Dog and the play Under Milk Wood, commemorative centres can be found in the town of his birth Swansea and the town he settled in Laugharne, both in Wales. British writers and artists have contributed to many schools of art and literature throughout modern history. From the medieval works of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14 th Century and the 18 th Century romantic works of Byron, Shelley, Keats, the Brontes, Sir Walter Scott, and Lakeland poet William Wordsworth, writers who meshed legend and landscapes capturing Britain's scenic beauty just as artists like J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough were on canvas. Through to the gritty realists such as Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen who documented life in the 19 th Century. Britain not only has a rich heritage of art and literature, it has a wealth to show off, with a huge range of world class, galleries and museums. From the National Gallery and British Museum in London, the Tate Modern and Tate Galleries in London, Liverpool and St Ives, the Lowry in Salford, The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth containing the oldest texts in the Welsh Language and the famous Burrell Collection in Glasgow, Britain has a stunning collection of unique cultural institutions right across this small island.
Wales is famed for its lamb and local dishes include, Laverbread, a seaweed condiment often served with bacon and Welsh Rarebit, cheese and ham served on toasted bread. The Scottish national menu is known for haggis, spiced sheep's innards and oats boiled in a lamb's bladder, which is much more appetising than it sounds and usually comes served with ‘neeps' – swedes and ‘tatties' – potatoes. Scottish black beef and venison dominate meat dishes and are served simply relying on the quality flavour of the meat. Scottish salmon is equally renowned, fished from the many rivers and lochs and smoked kippers are another delicacy best served at breakfast. Another common breakfast dish is porridge made of oats, boiled water and milk, with salt or sugar. The English menu encompasses a number of regional favourites and national dishes as well as dishes imported from countries of the former colonies which are more popular than traditional favourites. England's gastronomic delights are commonly thought of as Roast Beef served with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and other vegetables. England doesn't really have a national dish as such, there is of course fish and chips, battered white fish served with chipped potatoes and the ubiquitous full English Breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage, black pudding etc, though this is renamed Full Scottish and served with haggis north of the border. But many of the more common dishes have regional roots. The classic roast beef with Yorkshire pudding comes from Yorkshire; the Midlands are renowned for their pies, particularly pork pies and faggots a local delicacy of pigs liver and spices rolled in a ball. In London pies are often accompanied with mushy peas while another Cockney delicacy are jellied eels. Cornwall is home to the famous Cornish Pasty, devised as a simple but filling dish for tin miners to take to work. The pasty is filled with meat and vegetables and the pastry rolled around and pinched at the top to give it its distinctive style. Cornwall and Devon are also famed for their clotted cream often served on scones and accompanied by cream teas while along the south coast you'll commonly see stalls selling cockles and whelks, a small and often awkward to eat shell fish. Also along the south coast is Dover sole, Britain's most prized flat fish cooked simply and served with lemon. Up north you'll find Cumberland Sausage, a coiled sausage spiced with herbs and served with mashed potatoes and gravy. One typically English delicacy is afternoon teas, served around 4pm with tea usually from India, served with milk and sugar and a collection of sweets from scones with cream and jam, a slice of fruit cake, Victoria Sponge or even hot buttered crumpets or cucumber sandwiches. In more modern times Britain has looked to the continent and further a field for gastronomic inspiration. One of the greatest explosions of the British palate has been in Asian food, particularly Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi dishes introduced by immigrants from the 1950s, which have come to replace traditional dishes as the nations favourites.
From the 17 th and 18 th Century many taverns developed as coaching inns drawing trade from stagecoach travellers. The 19 th Century brought the railway and a number of railway inns, and as the industrial cities grew so did the number of grimy pubs to cater for the workers. The Pub became an important social centre for a community whether it was a rural country pub or a lively local in a town. In British towns today you'll find a mix of modern fashionable bars and traditional pubs reminiscent of Victorian times with a deep mahogany bar with draught pumps and pub games like cribbage, dominoes and darts. Often the best examples of pubs are the traditional inns and village pubs out in the countryside offering a laid back pace, a rural setting and more often than not a beer garden in which to enjoy your tipple. British pubs are renowned for their ales particularly the Real Ale of cask beer which is not filtered or chilled and has a more flavoursome characterful taste that connoisseurs would consider more natural. These are generally split between Bitters the most popular traditional beer with a bitter hoppy taste and Mild, popular in the West Midlands and North West of England with a fruitier and fuller flavour. Overall Lager is the most popular drink in Britain served bottle or draught though most are imported from the continent and pubs will usually serve stout, the thick creamy black beer, which is predominantly Guinness and in some pubs, predominantly in the west country you'll find cider or Scrumpy a strong, sweet beer made from apples. Since wine bars became popular in London and the south of England during the 1980s many pubs will also have a decent stock of wines and in popular bars cocktails. While a full range of spirits is offered in most pubs and in Scotland a pub can't call itself a pub unless it has at least about 50 different brands of whisky. Scotland is famous for its whisky which differs from Irish whiskey not least because it drops the e. Deriving from the Gaelic term ‘uisage beatha' meaning water of life, whisky is differentiated between grain or malt. Scotch whisky is predominantly malt and each distillery produces its own individual malt distinguished by its taste and texture. The main regions producing single malts are around the Speyside in the Grampians, the Highlands and the Isle of Islay. Irish Whiskey differs in that it blends a selection of malts and grain whiskies to produce a smoother flavour. Britain has produced or at least codified some of the world's most prominent sports, exporting them around the globe and now the British regularly find themselves being beaten at their own games.
Football is the national sport, certainly in England and the English Premier league is viewed as one of Europe's most prominent competitions attracting millions in both viewing figures and sponsorship money. The Premier League runs in conjunction with the FA Cup, the world's most prestigious national cup competition and the venue for the final is Cardiff Millennium Stadium. Football is also the main spectator sport in Scotland where competition between fierce local rivals Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers has dominated for decades. Celtic where in fact the first football team from Britain to ever win the European Cup competition in 1967, followed the next year by the world's most famous club Manchester United. In Wales, football plays second fiddle to Rugby. Rugby, the old adage goes is a thug's game played by gentlemen, whereas football is a gentleman's game played by thugs. Rugby originated in 1823 after a game of football at the Warwickshire school of Rugby went array when William Ellis decided to pick up the ball and run off with it. Since then the game is split between Rugby league played mainly in the north of England and Rugby Union, played in the south of England, Wales and the rest of the World. The main tournaments are the Rugby World Cup and the Six Nations, played between, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy. Cricket is that most English of games, genteel, graceful, skilful and completely baffling to the outsider. The famous ‘crack of leather on willow' as the ball hits the cricket bat, is best heard on a hot summer afternoon deep within the countryside of southern England. The game was created in the 16 th Century in Hampshire and during the 19 th Century was exported to the colonies of the British Empire. Now teams from India, Pakistan and Australia regularly thrash the ‘mother country' in what has come to be something of a national joke in England. When it comes to tennis, Wimbledon is nothing short of a national institution. This quintessential English pastime involves the consumption of strawberries and cream while watching the grass court tennis in the blazing sun, in between downpours of heavy rain. Golf is essentially a Scottish invention of the 15 th Century. It was popularised throughout Britain when James VI of Scotland became James I of England and has since been transported around the world. However its heart still remains at home in the quaint town of St Andrews in Scotland, where the sports authority, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the hallowed Old Course are located. Scotland also accounts for many of the world's championship links courses. |
Britain
has a combined population of some 60 million people, 51 million of
which live in England, mostly concentrating in the south east and
the industrial cities. London is by far the largest city with a population
of some 12 million people. Outside the south east region the most
populated areas are the industrial heartlands of the midlands where
Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city is located and the urban
cities of the north, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle. 
Britain can claim
more than its fair share of leading figures in literature and its
proud literary heritage is keenly expressed. Topping the list is undoubtedly
‘the Bard', William Shakespeare, whose knack of distilling sex, violence,
intrigue and drama, in plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and
the Merchant of Venice, is as captivating on the screens today as
it were on the stages of the Globe Theatre in 16 th Century. Shakespeare's
legacy has catapulted the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon to fame
and the town; birthplace of the Bard is one of England's main visitor
attractions. 
Britain's diversity
is sometimes best expressed in its variety of national and regional
dishes, served in a variety of surroundings from, Michelin starred
restaurants and high class hotels, to quaint eateries and olde English
pubs, back street restaurants and ‘greasy spoon' cafes and of course
the good old fish and chip shop. 
The Public House
or Pub has been part of English culture since the old Inns and taverns
of the middle ages, and some pubs even date back that far. They come
in a variety of forms with a variety of strange signs, denoting royalty,
country past-times or famous battles, depicted in bold pictures as
many of their early patrons couldn't read. 
Football
(soccer), rugby, cricket, golf, boxing and tennis all owe their form
to Britain and the country regularly hosts a number of prestigious
tournaments, from Wimbledon (tennis), the British Open (golf), test
match cricket, the six nations rugby and the FA Cup, European Cup
and World Cup soccer. 
