The fierce joy of Merry England (from Storm Jameson's The De...

Merry England - a visionary, idyllic and mainly pastoral idea of “deep” England that still persists. “At last, England had some inkling of her strength, the power drawn from a well-knit body and young muscle...This consciousness, this pride of strength was what made England merry: not merry in the sense of pleasant, but a fierce joy, a merriness as of Samson when he bore away the gates from Gaza.” The extract is from the opening chapter of The De...