George Borrow
George Henry Borrow was an English writer of novels and of travel books based on his own experiences in Europe. During his travels, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure prominently in his work, his best-known books are The Bible in Spain, the autobiographical Lavengro, The Romany Rye, about his time with the English Romanichal. Borrow was born at East Dereham, the son of Army recruiting officer, Thomas Borrow and farmer's daughter, Ann Perfrement, his father, a lieutenant with the West Norfolk Militia, was quartered at the prisoner-of-war camp at Norman Cross from July 1811 to April 1813 and George spent his ninth and tenth years in the barracks there. He was educated at the Royal High School of Norwich Grammar School. Borrow studied law. In 1825, Borrow began his first major European journey, walking in Germany. Over the next few years he visited Russia, Portugal and Morocco, acquainting himself with the people and languages of the various countries he visited.
After his marriage on 23 April 1840, he settled in Lowestoft, but continued to travel both inside and outside the UK. Having a military father, Borrow had a childhood of growing up at different posts. In the autumn of 1815, he accompanied the regiment to Clonmel in Ireland. There he attended the Protestant Academy, where he learned to read Latin and Greek "from a nice old clergyman", he was introduced to the Irish language by a fellow student named Murtagh, who tutored him in return for a pack of playing cards. In keeping with the political friction of the time, he learned to sing "the glorious tune'Croppies Lie Down' " at the military barracks, he was learned to ride without a saddle. The regiment moved to Templemore early in 1816, George took to ranging around the country on foot and on horseback. After less than a year in Ireland, the regiment returned to Norwich. With the threat of war having receded, the strength of the unit was reduced; because of his precocious linguistic skills, as a youth Borrow became the protégé of the Norwich-born scholar William Taylor.
Borrow depicts Taylor, an advocate of German Romantic literature, in his semi-autobiographical novel Lavengro. Recollecting his early youth in Norwich some thirty years earlier, Borrow depicts an old man and a young man discussing the merits of German literature, including Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. Taylor confesses himself to be no admirer of either The Sorrows of Young Werther or its author but states – "It is good to be a German the Germans are the most philosophical people in the world." With Taylor’s encouragement, Borrow embarked upon his first translation: von Klinger's version of the Faust legend, entitled Faustus, his Life and Descent into Hell, first published in St Petersburg in 1791. In his translation, Borrow altered the name of one city, thus making one passage of the legend read – "They found the people of the place modelled after so unsightly a pattern, with such ugly figures and flat features that the devil owned he had never seen them equalled, except by the inhabitants of an English town, called Norwich, when dressed in their Sunday's best."
For his lampooning of Norwich society, the young Borrow earned the humiliation of having Norwich public subscription library burn his first publication. George Borrow was a linguist adept at acquiring new languages, he informed the British and Foreign Bible Society that – "I possess some acquaintance with the Russian, being able to read without much difficulty any printed Russian book." He left Norwich to travel to St Petersburg on 13 August 1833. As an agent of the Bible Society, Borrow was charged with supervising a translation of the Bible into Manchu; as a traveller, he was overwhelmed by the beauty of St Petersburg: Notwithstanding I have heard and read much of the beauty and magnificence of the Russian capital.... There can be no doubt that it is the finest City in Europe, being pre-eminent for the grandeur of its public edifices and the length and regularity of its streets. During his two-year sojourn in Russia, Borrow called upon writer Alexander Pushkin; the poet was out on a social visit.
He left two copies of his translations of Pushkin's literary works and Pushkin expressed his regret at not meeting him. Borrow described the Russian people as: "The best-natured kindest people in the world, though they do not know as much as the English, they have not the fiendish, spiteful dispositions and if you go amongst them and speak their language, however badly, they would go through fire and water to do you a kindness." Borrow had a lifelong empathy with nomadic people such as Gypsies Gypsy music and customs. He became so familiar with the Romany language. In the summer of 1835, he visited Russian gypsies camped outside Moscow, his impressions formed part of the opening chapter of his The Zincali: or an account of the Gypsies of Spain. With his mission of supervising a Manchu translation of the Bible completed, Borrow returned to Norwich in September 1835. In his report to the Bible Society he confessed – "I quitted that country, am compelled to acknowledge, with regret. I went thither prejudiced against the government and the people.
Such was Borrow's success that on 11 November 1835 he set off for Spain, once more as an agent of the Bible Society. Borrow claimed to have staye
Desert of Wales
The Desert of Wales, or Green Desert of Wales, is a term coined to describe a large area in central Wales, so called because of its lack of roads and towns and its inaccessibility. The term was invented by English travel writers in the nineteenth century and its equivalent is not found in the Welsh language; the area corresponds to the upland area called Elenydd in Welsh and referred to locally as the Cambrian Mountains. In this case the word "desert" is used in the sense of an area uninhabited by humans, not in the sense of an arid desert; the area has high rainfall and much of it is covered by peat overlain with purple moor grass and heather moorland, or by plantations of non-native conifers. The soil tends to be acidic. There is no exact definition of the extent of the Desert of Wales, but it is bordered to the east by the A470 and the town of Rhayader, to the south by the A483 from Builth Wells to Llanwrda, to the west by the A482 from Llanwrda to Pumpsaint, from there northwards by a series of country roads up to Tregaron.
The northern boundary is taken to be the A44 between Ponterwyd and Llangurig, although the substantial area of moorland to the north of this road, including the reservoirs of Nant y Moch and Llyn Clywedog, has similar topography. The term Desert of Wales has been used to describe the area since at least 1860 when the following was written: The locality we were now traversing is one of the most untamed and desolate in either division of the Principality. Vast sweeping ranges of hills with round tops, add to the dreary aspect of this nearly unpeopled region... Travel is limited to narrow roads, forestry tracks and bridleways, it is a sparsely populated area, consisting of rolling hills and steep valleys with ancient native Welsh oak forest. The ruins of Strata Florida Abbey are located on the road from Tregaron; the area supported the last native red kites in the United Kingdom until their reintroduction and widespread revival in the 1980s. The area has many lakes and reservoirs, some of which supply drinking water to towns and cities in the English West Midlands, to the towns of northern Ceredigion, to towns all along the River Severn valley.
It is drained by the Afon Claerwen, Afon Teifi, Afon Cothi, Afon Tywi, Afon Irfon, Elan Valley, Afon Gwy, Afon Ystwyth, Afon Mynach, Afon Rheidol Elenydd - a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Ceredigion, west Wales Morgan, Gerald. Ceredigion, A Wealth of History. Ceredigion, Wales: Gomer. ISBN 1-84323-348-7. Cliffe, John Henry. Notes and Recollections of an Angler: Rambles Among the Mountains and Solitudes of Wales. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co. Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales: Historic Landscapes: Elenydd
Protestantism
Protestantism is the second largest form of Christianity with collectively between 800 million and more than 900 million adherents worldwide or nearly 40% of all Christians. It originated with the 16th century Reformation, a movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy and sacraments, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, they emphasize the priesthood of all believers, justification by faith alone rather than by good works, the highest authority of the Bible alone in faith and morals. The "five solae" summarise basic theological differences in opposition to the Roman Catholic Church. Protestantism is popularly considered to have begun in Germany in 1517 when Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses as a reaction against abuses in the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church, which purported to offer remission of sin to their purchasers.
However, the term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks and attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Jan Hus—only Luther succeeded in sparking a wider and modern movement. In the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Sweden, Latvia and Iceland. Reformed denominations spread in Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and France by reformers such as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, John Knox; the political separation of the Church of England from the pope under King Henry VIII began Anglicanism, bringing England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants have developed their own culture, with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, many other fields. Protestantism is diverse, being more divided theologically and ecclesiastically than either the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, or Oriental Orthodoxy.
Without structural unity or central human authority, Protestants developed the concept of an invisible church, in contrast to the Roman Catholic view of the Catholic Church as the visible one true Church founded by Jesus Christ. Some denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of Protestant denominational families: Adventists, Anglicans, Reformed, Lutherans and Pentecostals. Nondenominational, charismatic and other churches are on the rise, constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Proponents of the branch theory consider Protestantism one of the three major divisions of Christendom, together with the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodoxy. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, who issued a protest against the edict of the Diet of Speyer, were the first individuals to be called Protestants; the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier.
The term protestant, though purely political in nature acquired a broader sense, referring to a member of any Western church which subscribed to the main Protestant principles. However, it is misused to mean any church outside the Roman and Eastern Orthodox communions. Protestantism as a general term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i.e. Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. During the Reformation, the term protestant was hardly used outside of German politics. People who were involved in the religious movement used the word evangelical. For further details, see the section below. Protestant became a general term, meaning any adherent of the Reformation in the German-speaking area, it was somewhat taken up by Lutherans though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ. French and Swiss Protestants instead preferred the word reformed, which became a popular and alternative name for Calvinists.
The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was used for those involved in the religious movement in the German-speaking area beginning in 1517. Nowadays, evangelical is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and United Protestant traditions in Europe, those with strong ties to them. Above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the Evangelical Church in Germany. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Calvinist, or a United Protestant; the German word evangelisch means Protestant, is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical refers to evangelical Protestant churches, therefore to a certain part of Protestantism rather than to Protestantism as a whole; the English word traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, was brought to the United States. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term evangelical, derived from euangelion, a Greek word meaning "good news", i.e. "gospel".
The followers of
Geneva
Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Canton of Geneva; the municipality has a population of 200,548, the canton has 495,249 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France. Within Swiss territory, the commuter area named "Métropole lémanique" contains a population of 1.26 million. This area is spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, in the neighbouring canton of Vaud. Geneva is a global city, a financial centre, a worldwide centre for diplomacy due to the presence of numerous international organizations, including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross. Geneva hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world, it is where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which chiefly concern the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war.
In 2017, Geneva was ranked as the world's fifteenth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, fifth in Europe behind London, Zürich and Luxembourg. In 2019 Geneva was ranked among the ten most liveable cities in the world by Mercer together with Zürich and Basel; the city has been referred to as the world's most compact metropolis and the "Peace Capital". In 2017, Geneva was ranked as the seventh most expensive city in the world. Geneva was ranked third in purchasing power in a global cities ranking by UBS in 2018; the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava from the Celtic *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis. After 1400 it became the Genevois province of Savoy; the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva in English, French: Genève, German: Genf, Italian: Ginevra, Romansh: Genevra.
The city shares the origin of * genawa "estuary", with the Italian port city of Genoa. Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC, it became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the Bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, when it was granted a charter giving it a high degree of self-governance. Around this time, the House of Savoy came to at least nominally dominate the city. In the 15th century, an oligarchic republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In the first half of the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation reached the city, causing religious strife, during which Savoy rule was thrown off and Geneva allied itself with the Swiss Confederacy. In 1541, with Protestantism on the rise, John Calvin, the Protestant Reformer and proponent of Calvinism, became the spiritual leader of the city and established the Republic of Geneva.
By the 18th century, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, which inspired the failed Geneva Revolution of 1782, an attempt to win representation in the government for men of modest means. In 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, Geneva was admitted to the Swiss Confederation. In 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of many international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12' North, 6°09' East, at the south-western end of Lake Geneva, where the Rhône flows out, it is surrounded by three mountain chains, each belonging to the Jura: the Jura main range lies north-westward, the Vuache southward, the Salève south-eastward. The city covers an area of 15.93 km2, while the area of the canton is 282 km2, including the two small exclaves of Céligny in Vaud.
The part of the lake, attached to Geneva has an area of 38 km2 and is sometimes referred to as petit lac. The canton has only a 4.5-kilometre-long border with the rest of Switzerland. Of 107.5 km of border, 103 are shared with France, the Département de l'Ain to the north and west and the Département de la Haute-Savoie to the south and east. Of the land in the city, 0.24 km2, or 1.5%, is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.5 km2, or 3.1%, is forested. The rest of the land, 14.63 km2, or 91.8%, is built up, 0.49 km2, or 3.1%, is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km2, or 0.1%, is wasteland. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.4%, housing and buildings made up 46.2% and transportation infrastructure 25.8%, while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 15.7%. Of the agricultural land, 0.3% is used for growing crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2 % is composed of lakes and 2.9 % streams. The altitude of Geneva is 373.6 metres, corresponds to the altitude of
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, executed two-and-a-half years after Elizabeth's birth. Anne's marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, her half-brother, Edward VI, ruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters and the Roman Catholic Mary, in spite of statute law to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. In 1558 upon Mary's death, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel, she depended on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley.
One of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England, it was expected that Elizabeth would produce an heir. She was succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, she had earlier been responsible for the imprisonment and execution of James's mother, Queen of Scots. In government, Elizabeth was more moderate. One of her mottoes was "video et taceo". In religion, she was tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. After the pope declared her illegitimate in 1570 and released her subjects from obedience to her, several conspiracies threatened her life, all of which were defeated with the help of her ministers' secret service. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the major powers of Spain, she only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands and Ireland.
By the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. England's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history; as she grew older, Elizabeth became celebrated for her virginity. A cult grew around her, celebrated in the portraits and literature of the day. Elizabeth's reign became known as the Elizabethan era; the period is famous for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Francis Drake. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, who enjoyed more than her share of luck. Towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Elizabeth is acknowledged as a charismatic performer and a dogged survivor in an era when government was ramshackle and limited, when monarchs in neighbouring countries faced internal problems that jeopardised their thrones.
After the short reigns of her half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard, she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Anne Boleyn. At birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England, her older half-sister, had lost her position as a legitimate heir when Henry annulled his marriage to Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne, with the intent to sire a male heir and ensure the Tudor succession. She was baptised on 10 September 1533. A canopy was carried at the ceremony over the three-day old child by her uncle Viscount Rochford, Lord Hussey, Lord Thomas Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham. Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragon's death from natural causes.
Elizabeth was deprived of her place in the royal succession. Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Edward, in 1537. From his birth, Edward was undisputed heir apparent to the throne. Elizabeth was placed in his household and carried the chrisom, or baptismal cloth, at his christening. Elizabeth's first governess, Margaret Bryan, wrote that she was "as toward a child and as gentle of conditions as I knew any in my life". Catherine Champernowne, better known by her married name of Catherine "Kat" Ashley, was appointed as Elizabeth's governess in 1537, she remained Elizabeth's friend until her death in 1565. Champernowne taught Elizabeth four languages: French, Flemish and Spanish. By the time William Grindal became her tutor in 1544, Elizabeth could write English and Italian. Under Grindal, a talented and skilful tutor, she progressed in French and Greek. After Grindal died in 1548, Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham, a sympathetic teacher who believed that learning should be engaging.
By the time her formal education ended in 1550, Elizabeth was one of the best educated women of her generation. At the end of her life, Elizabeth was believed to speak Welsh, Cornish and Irish in addition to the languages men
Wild Wales
Wild Wales: Its People and Scenery is a travel book by the English Victorian gentleman writer George Borrow, first published in 1862. The book recounts Borrow's personal experiences and insights while touring Wales alone on foot after a family holiday in Llangollen in 1854, has come to be regarded as a source of useful information about the social and geographical history of the country at that time, it has been described as "robust and cheerful", the author as "an agreeably eccentric, larger-than-life, jovial man whose laughter rings all through the book". The author makes much of his self-taught ability to speak the Welsh language and how surprised the native Welsh people he meets and talks to are by both his linguistic abilities and his travels and personality, by his idiosyncratic pronunciation of their language. Borrow gives a detailed account of his journey and starts his travels into North Wales from Chester, passing en route through Wrexham, Llangollen and Betws-y-coed to Bangor, Caernarfon, Bala and south, through Mid Wales to Tregaron and Lampeter, Devil's Bridge, Cwm Ystwyth and Pont-rhyd-y-groes arriving in some of the industrial areas around the South Wales coalfields, such as Brynamman, Merthyr Tydfil and Pontardawe, before visiting Swansea and Neath and leaving the country via Caerphilly and Chepstow.
His voice is distinctive and at times a little overbearing, but he provides a unique snapshot of the parts of the country that he visited at that particular point in time. He never returned to deepen his knowledge and failed to cover the many parts of Wales he left out of this work. In effect, Wild Wales is a tourist's snapshot, albeit a unique one. Borrow, George Henry. Wild Wales: Its People and Scenery. London: John Murray. Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery at Project Gutenberg Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery at Project Gutenberg Wild Wales, its People and Scenery by George Borrow ebook at adelaide.edu.au Vision of Britain on George Borrow's Wild Wales
Squire
Starting in the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. At times, a squire acted as a knight's errand runner. Use of the term evolved over time. A squire was a knight's apprentice. A village leader or a lord of the manor might be called a squire, still the term applied to key public figures, such as justices of the peace or members of parliament. In contemporary American usage, squire is the title given to justices of the peace or similar local dignitaries. Squire is a shortened version of the word esquire, from the Old French escuier, itself derived from the Late Latin scutarius, in medieval or Old English a scutifer; the Classical Latin equivalent was armiger. The most common definition of squire refers to the Middle Ages. A squire was a teenaged boy, training to become a knight. A boy became a squire at the age of 14. Squires were the second step after having served as a page. Boys served a knight as an attendant or shield carrier, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour.
The squire would sometimes carry the knight's flag into battle with his master. A knight took his squire into battle and gave him a chance to prove himself. If he proved his loyalty and skill in battle, he would have a "dubbing", an official ceremony that made him a knight. However, during the Middle Ages, the squire's rank came to be recognized in its own right; the connection between a squire and any particular knight ended, as did any shield-carrying duties. The typical jobs of a squire included: Carrying the knight's armour and sword Guarding prisoners Ensuring an honourable burial for a knight Replacing an injured or killed horse Dressing the knight in armour Carrying the knight's flag Protecting the knight Taking care of the horses Accompanying the knight to tournaments and the battlefield Maintaining the knight's equipment Scrubbing armour The young King Arthur served as Sir Kay's squire in the traditional tale of the sword in the stone that appears in literary works, including Le Morte d'Arthur and The Once and Future King.
One of the pilgrim-storytellers in The Canterbury Tales is a squire. In Cervantes's Don Quixote, the babbling Sancho Panza serves as squire of the deluded Don. In the children's book The Castle in the Attic, the protagonist William serves as the squire of Sir Simon, a knight from the Middle Ages who got transported to the present. In English village life from the late 17th century to the early 20th century, there was one principal family of gentry, owning much of the land and living in the largest house, maybe the manor house; the head of this family was the lord of the manor and called "the squire". Lords of the manor held the rank of esquire by prescription. Squires were gentlemen with a coat of arms and were related to peers. Many could claim descent from knights and had been settled in their inherited estates for hundreds of years; the squire lived at the village manor house and owned an estate, comprising the village, with the villagers being his tenants. If the squire "owned the living" of the parish church — and he did — he would choose the rector, a role filled by a younger son of the squire of that or another village.
Some squires became the local rector themselves and were known as squarsons. The squire would have performed a number of important local duties, in particular that of justice of the peace or member of Parliament; such was the power of the squires at this time that modern historians have created the term'squirearchy'. Politically, during the 19th century, squires tended to be Tories, whereas the greatest landlords tended to be Whigs; the position of squire was traditionally associated with occupation of the manor house, which would itself confer the dignity of squire. It is unclear how the village squire may still be said to survive today, but where it does, the role is more dependent upon a recognition of good manners and long family association rather than land, while relevant, is nowadays to be smaller than in former years due to high post-war death duties and the prohibitive costs associated with maintaining large country houses. In Scotland, whilst esquire and gentleman are technically used at the Court of the Lord Lyon, the title laird, in place of squire, is more common.
Moreover, in Scotland, lairds append their territorial designation to their names as was traditionally done on the mainland of Europe. The territorial designation fell into disuse in England early on. Traditional Education Squires did not receive much of any traditional education in the years that they were squires; the form of squire as a gentleman appears in much of English literature, for example in the form of Squire Trelawney in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. William Makepeace Thackeray depicted a squire in Vanity Fair as a lecherous, ill-educated, badly mannered relic of an earlier age. However, he shows their control of the life of the parish. Others include Squire Hamley in Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters and Squire Allworthy in the novel Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, himself a squire and magistrate. There is a notable squire in Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark and Charles Reade's 1856 novel It is Never Too Late to Mend, where the squire uses his authority to abuse the postal and judicial services.
In the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'B
